Council to consider action on water and sewer study

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

According to a water and sewer rate study commissioned by the Fernley City Council, the city’s water and sewer funds are not collecting sufficient funds to meet their revenue requirements.

Thursday night, the council will consider its options.

The City Council will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. for discussion and possible action regarding the water and sewer rate study.

Last December, the council approved a contract with Hansford Economic Consulting to conduct a water and sewer rate study.

That report was presented to the council at a special meeting on Sept. 14 in which HEC founder Catherine Hansford said the city’s water fund has lost money in four of the past five years, and will need an additional $20 million for water improvements and $8 million for sewer improvements over the next five years. Those improvements include a projected $5 million to upgrade the city’s water treatment plant to treat surface water, and $5 million to build infrastructure to get the city’s surface water to the treatment plant.

The city has 10,000 acre feet per year of surface water that it currently can’t use because its water treatment plant was designed to treat groundwater.

At that Sept. 14 meeting, several council members said they could not support drastic rate increases, and that they preferred to see rates increase gradually every year.

Hansford will present the council with several alternatives at Thursday’s meeting.