EVERY NEWS ARTICLE MISSES THE REASON FOR COATESVILLE’S HIGH WATER RATES

AlJazzera
In Pennsylvania city, the poor are paying the price for a bad water deal
Beleaguered Coatesville sold its water system to a private company in hopes of fueling a turnaround that never came
July 13, 2015 5:00AM ET
by Aaron Miguel Cantú

Keystone Crossroads
OCTOBER 21, 2015
What your city can learn from the cost of water in Coatesville, Pa.

To put it simply the Coatesville area sanitary sewer system processes about 3.85 million gallons of waste water per day. The system is over designed to support 21 million gallons of waste water per day.

When the system was planned. There were about 80 new suburban housing subdivisions planned in East Fallowfield, Caln, West Caln, Valley, Sadsbury, West Sadsbury, Highland and West Brandywine townships. 

When all those people living in new suburban homes hooked into the new sewer system the rates for everyone, including City of Coatesville residents, would have been reasonable. 

But something happened in 2007 that killed all 80 subdivision developments. The Wall Street bankers Ponzi scheme was uncovered and those 80 subdivisions died in the housing bubble collapse. 

I think the reason every journalist writing about Coatesville’s water system missed the primary reason our rates are high is that documentation for the 80 new subdivisions is hard to find. 

I know about the subdivision plans from speaking to former Coatesville City Manager Jean Krack. 

There is documentation for the 80 planned subdivisions if you can read between the lines:

“Lastly, there is the growth in the area. Each of the municipalities the plant serves has various levels of growth anticipated for the future, Reed said. The plant was built to meet that growth. 

The plant currently serves 60,000 direct customers and four bulk wastewater customers in the following municipalities: East Fallowfield, Caln, West Caln, Valley, Sadsbury, West Sadsbury, Highland, West Brandywine, Parkesburg and Coatesville...

The old plant processed 3.85 million gallons of wastewater a day. The new plant has three ‘screws,’ the term used for the mechanism that brings the effluent into the facility for treatment. Each of the screws can bring in 7 million gallons a day, said Rich Lutz, production supervisor of the Coatesville plant. Construction started in 2008.” 

FROM: 

The Mercury News 

Water company expanding Coatesville plant 

By Gretchen Metz, Journal Register News Service 

POSTED: 11/02/09, 12:01 AM EST | UPDATED: ON 11/02/2009

SO BLAME THE HIGH COST OF YOUR WATER ON THE RIGHT PEOPLE:

CORRECTION:
I wrote that the system processes about 3.85 million gallons of waste water a day. The system is over designed to support 7 million gallons of waste water a day. 
I corrected it to say:
The system is over designed to support 21 million gallons of waste water a day.