Candidates set for city water fight

A proposed $42 million expansion of Bloomington’s water treatment plant is described by the city’s utilities department as necessary to protect Bloomington’s clean water supply, but some local politicians – including mayoral candidate David Sabbagh – are reluctant to promote the plan without a second opinion.\nSome experts predict the city’s 40-year-old pumping and filtering plant might not be able to pump enough water to meet predictions about the amount of water students and residents will consume in the future. Without increasing pumping capabilities, Bloomington’s need could exceed its water-pumping capacity for a single day by 2010, according to its Long Range Water Capital Plan – presenting an increased likelihood the city could face water shortages. \nBloomington receives its water from Lake Monroe, which is large enough to provide more than enough water for residents, said Patrick Murphy, the director of the city’s utilities department. Yet while the city’s water supply is abundant, Murphy said the treatment plant may not be able to capitalize on the supply. \nThis plan calls for an expansion of the water treatment facility from one that can pump 24 million gallons per day to one that can pump 30, he said. Furthermore, the utilities department is recommending the city build another water pipeline as insurance should the current single line be damaged. The chamber of commerce, which currently opposes the plant expansion, is in favor of building this second pipeline. Murphy said the entire plan would cost about $42 million, with a goal of the expansion being completed near the end of 2011.\nMurphy said Bloomington \nresidents would likely see a 46 percent increase in their water bills to help pay for the expansion of the plant, which would be phased in over the course of two to three years. Bengston cautioned residents not to believe that their entire utilities bill would increase by 46 percent, however. The utilities bill that residents receive each month includes a bill for drinking water, storm sewers and wastewater, he said. It is only the drinking water portion of the bill that would increase. \nAccording to the department’s estimates, this would amount to an average $7 increase per monthly bill. \nDuring an unusually hot summer this year, the city had several days where water usage at peak times approached maximum pumping capacity, Murphy said. For example, on a day in late August, the plant pumped at its maximum capacity for 16 consecutive hours, according to the utilities department’s report. With projected population growth and forecasted continued effects of global warming, Murphy and others believe it is past time for Bloomington to expand the plant’s capacity. \n“I think we’re playing with fire here,” said Michael Bengston, assistant director of engineering for the utilities department. While some have already questioned the expansion’s timing, Bengston said the project is a matter of common sense. \n“It’s a difference in perspective (between) those who have to be responsible for this thing as opposed to those that really have no stake in it other than to snipe from the outside,” he said. Bengston said he thinks the city should take up the project immediately. \nOthers disagree. Sabbagh said he supports waiting for a second opinion before committing to the expansion. Currently, the utilities department’s plan relies on a report by an independent company that recommended a plant expansion, he said. Still, the mayoral candidate challenged the consulting and constructing firm Black and Veach’s recommendations, since the current proposal stands to land the company a multi-million dollar contract. \n“There’s no need to spend the money to expand the plant now if it’s not necessary,” he said. \n“We all agree we need more (pumping) capacity in the future, but it’s pretty easy to debate when that point is,” said Tim Henke, vice president of the Bloomington Utilities Service Board and member of the chamber of commerce. “If (the time to expand the plant is) ten years from now, we need to save the money. We have lots of other projects to do.”\nMayor Mark Kruzan supports the current plan – in part because he is not sure a second opinion would be more reliable than the first. If a second opinion came back against the plant expansion, that might require the city to look for a third, tie-breaking opinion, costing Bloomington more time and money, Kruzan said. It is a situation, he said, of acting early to avoid shortages in the long-run.\nWhile the utilities department describes the expansion as necessary for Bloomington’s future well-being, others also see the plan as beneficial to Bloomington business. \n“We want to make sure that when someone is looking at growing here we are going to be able to meet their needs (for water),” said Ron Walker, director of the Bloomington Economic Development Council. “If we can’t, they might go somewhere else, and if people go elsewhere, then you don’t grow your economy.” \nHenke, disagreed, saying the city might benefit more economically by saving money and not expanding the plant at this time. The city has not fully explored other options, he said, such as improving the pumping ability of the existing plant, or implementing voluntary conservation measures for days when water demand is particularly high. \n“Water that we supply is really a bargain,” Bengston said. “People are willing to pay a hundred dollars for their cable bill but they’re worrying about another $7 on their water bill.”\nExpanding the water treatment plant may well be the only viable way to prepare for the possibility that Bloomington will require more water in the future, Walker said. \n“There’s nothing in our laws in the state of Indiana that allow us to limit how much water people use,” Walker said. “So right now we need to make sure we can handle the supply that’s required by the community. That’s really it – it’s really just a long, slow growth, and the fact that we probably need to plan for continued growth.”