05/20/1985 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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- Rudol~h Malnar, 792 Merian Lane, concurred with the recommended system descrlbed on the slides Mr. Guenzler had shown. Gene Gustafson, 885 Grant, represented Dutch Girl Ice Cream Company and Echo Spring Dairy. He said the companies spent much money to conserve water and to monitor extra strength charges. He felt it was not fair for the companies' charges to be based on water usage now. He agreed with the other testimony concerning industrial customers. There being no other requests to testify, Mayor Obie closed the pUblic hearing. Responding to the testimony, Mr. Guenzler said that records indicate there are only seven or eight industrial customers in the metropolitan area. Now, their effluent and water usage is monitored. The MWMC had decided to retain the current billing practice for them. Their reclassification to a general strength category would be satisfactory to Mr. Guenzler and would end the practice of changing signals to those customers. Mr. Guenzler said the recommended Eugene rates are comparable to the rates in Salem. The Eugene sanitary flow rate would be about 20 percent more than the Portland rate and the storm sewer rate would be equivalent to the Portland rate if Eugene could charge as Portland does. e Answering questions from Mr. Rutan, Mr. Guenzler said that only seven or eight customers would be affected if the industrial category is eliminated. Responding to a question from Ms. Ehrman, Mr. Guenzler said that Eugene has 4,500 non-residential customers. In order to charge those customers by square footage for storm sewers, much additional data would have to be collected and inserted in the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) billing base. Such a system would be more fair, but a way to collect and maintain the data could not be found by July 1,1985. Mr. Gleason added that it would take eight months to collect the data. Ms. Bascom expressed concern about .allocating storm sewer and street sweeping charges on the basis of water and flow usage for commercial and industrial customers. She wondered if another simple system could be found. Mr. Guenzler did not know of one. He briefly discussed a system being pro- posed to the Springfield City Council which compares meter size to the pro- perty served. He recommended against adoption of a system with many excep- tions or a system which is just marginally better than the present system. He said funds have been requested for an area-wide storm sewer master plan which will facilitate the billing of storm sewer charges based on impervious units. Responding to Ms. Bascom, Ms. Schue said that the industrial and commericial customers object to storm sewer and street-sweeping charges based on flow. They also object to the new recommended regional rates. The industrial custo- mers could be moved into the commercial category, but some of them might be worse off. The matter would have to be studied. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 20, 1985 Page 4