CHAMPION — Water representatives across the Mahoning Valley warned that regionalizing water would come at an extra cost, as local officials discussed the topic Thursday evening.

The 12-person Water Advisory Panel had a special hour-long meeting at the Champion Township Administration Building, welcoming Youngstown Water Commissioner Harry Johnson, Warren Director of Utilities Franco Lucarelli and Jason Loree, representing Boardman Township and the ABC Water and Stormwater District.

The panel is only able to bring recommendations before the county commissioners for their approval.

Matt Blair, an attorney and executive committee chairman of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, reintroduced Ohio Revised Code 6119, a statute that allows a community to initiate a regional water district, which he said the water board would be seeking at February’s special meeting.

Blair said the area already has a regional water district through the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, which dates back to the 1950s.

“What we have there is, it used to be a two-man board — in fact, in 1998, it expanded to a four-man board, two representatives each from the City of Niles and the City of Youngstown,” Blair said, “I’ll use this as an illustration because this is very similar to what you’d do with a 6119.”

Blair said both cities sell surplus water to Mahoning and Trumbull County customers.

“In Mahoning County, Youngstown, is very active in the distribution lines, but here in Trumbull County, Niles does not have as many distribution lines — they sell primarily to Trumbull County,” Blair said.

Blair said both cities’ water rates are “very competitive” compared to other areas in the state, but the upcharges were the problem Trumbull primarily had, noting Niles sells water to a community, but in some cases, the community will resell the water at a marked-up rate.

“You can have water that starts out, if MVSD is charging $2.11 for a thousand gallons of water, but once it reaches Liberty, it’s up to $21.12,” Blair said. “That’s what some Liberty residents are paying for a thousand gallons of water.”

Blair said communities such as Niles and Youngstown think regionalizing would involve them losing their water, which he said isn’t the case.

“What you do is, you form a regional water district with the communities that are being served by Youngstown and Niles and the City of Warren,” Blair said. “Then that district would attempt to negotiate water prices to get the best water prices from the provider they choose.”

Blair said forming a 6119 is a process, adding that regionalization already is taking place in the Toledo area, but it took decades.

“I can tell you Toledo, they started it in 1997 and they finalized it in 2018 — so that kind of gives you an idea, it was a long process. I don’t think it has to be that long, other communities have done it a lot quicker,” Blair said.

REPRESENTATIVES

Lucarelli noted that there are communities that want regionalization, but there aren’t many that want to pay for it.

“That infrastructure has been paid for over the last 75 years by the citizens of Youngstown, by the citizens of Warren and the citizens of Niles,” Lucarelli said. “If not for that expense, the talk of regionalization wouldn’t be happening because there would be no source.”

Lucarelli said the conversation needs to begin with the cost of regionalization for the entities involved.

Lucarelli confirmed that water rates within city limits are set based on rate studies and infrastructure maintenance costs. Infrastructure outside the city limits is not maintained by the city in some cases, he added, using the city’s bulk sales to the county as an example.

Johnson said Youngstown maintains infrastructure outside of the city — naming Boardman, Liberty and Austintown as an example — but sells in bulk to Campbell.

“We’re not responsible for maintaining that infrastructure; they maintain it,” Johnson said.

Lucarelli said the bulk water rate Warren sells at is less than the city’s inside rate because it’s a bulk rate.

“What happens after the water is sold to Trumbull County does not fall under the purview of the City of Warren, and I’m assuming — I’m not going to speak for (Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer) Gary (Newbrough) — Trumbull County has their own expenses,” Lucarelli said. “To maintain those lines, to install those lines, the capital costs to install those lines and the ongoing maintenance, so that’s how I assume they figure out what their costs are.”

Blair questioned the justification for markups of nearly 40% on surplus water if the cities weren’t responsible for maintaining the infrastructure.

“They determine their own infrastructure rate for maintaining that system, we are forced to charge for the areas that we maintain,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he’s familiar with legislation introduced by State Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, that would restrict municipalities from tacking on more than a 25% surcharge to surrounding communities for water and sewer fees or face the loss of Local Government Fund money and state grants for those purposes.

Johnson said other areas would experience rate increases if the legislation passes.

“I’m going to have to immediately turn around and just increase their rates to compensate for that reduction,” Johnson said. “I have to spare those costs over the suburbs, the surrounding areas of the City of Youngstown, so ultimately, it would impact the city users.”

“If he (Cutrona) thinks it’s going to reduce rates, it’s not going to happen,” Johnson said.

Lucarelli said rates would only increase in the townships if city customers receive a rate increase.

Loree said Boardman’s users are split in terms of its water user base — 50% Youngstown and 50% Aqua Ohio, noting that Aqua’s rates are higher because they’re a private company and they had to make money to improve their infrastructure.

Loree said it’s sometimes hard to explain that water rates are the cost of maintaining and upgrading systems using operators who may require special licensure to repair lines.

“I know there’s some places in Youngstown — I don’t know about Niles — that still have wooden lines,” Loree said. “They’re ancient, so I don’t want to give anybody the illusion that there’s not a true cost of operating all the systems that we have involved; there’s probably a major need to increase all the rates to deal with that cost.”

Loree said he understands why cities would pass the costs to outside residents, because they don’t vote on city matters, but he also understands the townships’ feeling that they are taking the brunt of the costs.

Loree said there was an “extreme cost” to operating a water system.

He also said Toledo took as long as it did to regionalize because their water infrastructure was under major stress.

“They needed everybody to understand the true cost, so they did form a water district, and what happened was those costs went up for everybody,” Loree said. “But the system that provides the drinking water for everybody who needs it is going to get the attention it absolutely needs.”

Loree said forming a regional water district is an expensive endeavor, noting regulations are stringent nowadays.

We at the ABC Water District have been working with the City of Youngstown to try and expand the water line to Canfield. The regulations for hydrant size, size of line, master meter agreements,” Loree said. “We have to, at the stormwater district, try and recoup some of that money, to people who want to tap into that water line.”

“This is not cheap, and it will never go backwards to being cheaper. It’s always going to have a price,” Loree added.

Blair acknowledged that regionalization is a process that ultimately requires all entities’ involvement, but said regional water systems are a trend that is not going away.