A consultant reviewing the operating costs of New Castle County's sewer system found the fees here are lower than similar governments.
According to the firm CH2M Hill, New Castle County's $240 average annual sewer bill is $140 less than the National Sewer Index. That national average rose 60 percent since 1995, while the county's rates went up only 20 percent. The average sewer bill in the Tri-State region is $315, the study found.
What's more, the county's sewer rates are less than 0.5 percent of the median household income here. That's important, because federal stimulus funds awarded for sewer projects last year only were allocated to governments that charge 1.5 percent or higher.
The county's sewer rate is calculated based on household water usage rather than effluent discharge, which means that as conservation becomes more chic, revenues can only be raised by a rate increase, said Special Services Engineer Jason Zern.
The report was not commissioned to make the case for higher rates, officials say, but as part of a comprehensive review of the department to assess efficiencies.
Zern said the department would use the data to review the way it manages its sewer system on a day-to-day basis and could potentially lead to structural changes within the department if they're deemed necessary.
The findings showed the county has more system failures than similar-sized governments, with 14 incidents per 100 miles of pipe each year as compared to 8-12 in the other municipalities surveyed. That could have more to do with the age of the system, and the fact that workers are proactively looking for potential issues than any shortcomings, said Zern.
