Sewer Rates May Go Down Under Revised BRSA Plan

The Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority (BRSA) is proposing a change to sewer service agreements that is says will save money for users in the eight municipalities it bills for services.

At a meeting of the Bayshore Area Council of Mayors on June 29, the executive director of the BRSA, Robert Fischer, discussed the idea. The authority services Holmdel, Matawan, Aberdeen, Union Beach, Keyport, Hazlet, Keansburg, and parts of Marlboro. 

The present service agreements are based on the BRSA telling towns what they would be charged at the end of the year, and then making adjustments. 

It has been that way for a long time. “We’ve been providing sewer service to these towns since 1972. The original three towns were Union Beach, Hazlet, and Holmdel, and then as the years went on, other towns came in,” Fischer said.

The towns signed contracts with the BRSA for sewer service. “And most of them were close to 40 years in term (length),” Fischer said.

It is now time to renew the agreements.

“We don’t want to wait until the last minute to have service agreements renewed because it could take months of negotiating back and forth or, you know, different language changes,” Fischer said.

The new “rolling average” system would replace the old plan. Towns would now be charged the average number of gallons of waste over the last five years.

For example, under the old system, if a town is told it will be charged for 350 million gallons of waste, Fischer explained, “At the end of the year if that (total) comes in at 450 million gallons, that town owes us 100 million gallons worth of treatment charges."

“The following year, if we bill them for 350 million and it comes in 250, we owe them 100 million gallons worth of treatment charges,” he said.

Fischer said no one saves any money, neither the towns nor the BRSA. Under the new plan, towns would save up to 18% for 2012 and 2013 because the new charge is going to be lower than the highest price they have been charged over the past five years.

In fact, according to Fischer, “for the last 11 years, we had estimated that the flow to the plant would be 23,513,000,000 gallons for those 11 years. The actual flow was 23,538,000,000 gallons.”

Fischer is excited about what the new system will bring. “And so it’s a simplified service agreement because the old service agreement had all kinds of terminology and conditions for when this particular town disconnects from their existing sewer system, they have to connect at this point,” says Fischer. “In reality, they’re connected already.”

So far, only the drafts of the new service agreement have been distributed to the towns. Comments will be considered until around the August. In September, the agreements will be finalized.

“And hopefully in October, we have it executed with an effective date,” Fischer said.

The new agreements could go into effect in June 2012.