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Board approves WPCA operating budget and 4.4% sewer use fee increase
Summary
The Board approved the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) operating budget and a 4.4% sewer use fee increase to cover operating costs and debt service tied to planned capital projects; staff reported continuing coordination with Connecticut DEEP on long-term plans.
The Board of Estimate and Taxation voted April 7 to approve the Water Pollution Control Authority’s operating budget and the WPCA’s recommended 4.4% increase in sewer use fees for the coming year.
Vanessa (WPCA staff) and other WPCA representatives explained that the WPCA operates as an enterprise fund covering sanitary sewer collection, pump stations and the wastewater treatment plant. The WPCA uses an annual financial model that incorporates operating costs and capital projects over a 10-year horizon; the 4.4% fee increase is intended to meet operating needs and debt-service obligations for planned capital work. Nadia (WPCA) said contract operator Veolia provides operations and maintenance at the treatment plant under a contract that began in May 2020, with an initial term of 10 years and two five-year renewal options. WPCA staff reported five full-time employees in the WPCA and said the plant’s hundred-and-eighty-day rolling average flow is roughly 12 million gallons per day (MGD) against a design capacity of 18 MGD.
Staff also told the board they have submitted a collection-system master plan and a facility plan update to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) in 2022 and 2023, and that DEEP asked follow-up questions in 2024; WPCA staff said they responded in November 2024 and are awaiting final approvals. The board approved the operating budget as presented.
Key clarifying figures reported during the discussion included: the WPCA’s anticipated receipt of net nitrogen credits for 2024 through the state nitrogen-exchange program; an increase in operations and maintenance fees of roughly 3.5%; and WPCA charges for city support services totaling approximately $768,460. Board members also asked about the Wilton contract, which staff said is budgeted conservatively at $850,000 in the model, and about recent storm-driven peaks in flow that reached around the plant’s 90% mark on a rolling-average basis during heavy rainfall events.
The WPCA budget passed on voice vote.
