By Stan Welch
The West Pelzer Town Council held a special called meeting last Thursday to consider a possible change in how the Town purchases its potable water supply. David Bereskin and Phil Robey of Greenville Water explained that the Town could reserve their required amounts of drinking water in advance and receive a significant reduction in the cost per thousand gallons.
The same offer was made by the GW representatives to Pelzer recently. That council is currently considering the proposition; which like the one made to West Pelzer, would require the town to buy into the available capacity owned by Greenville Water.
The town would reserve their required capacity, and the cost of the buy in would be added to the monthly water bill the town pays now. Greenville Water would finance the buy in amount. That amount would be based on the daily usage reserved. For example, a reserved capacity of 100,000 gallons per day (GPD) would cost the Town $254,000, while a 300,000 GPD reserve would cost, not surprisingly, three times as much, or $762,000.
The financing of the buy in amount, at the higher reserve of 300,000 GPD would be as follows: $762,000 for 5 years at 3.5% = $13,535 per month, or $762,000 for 10 years at 3.5% = $7,535 per month.
That figure was based on the Town’s one day peak usage of 290,000 GPD back in 2008, an amount that Town Clerk Paula Payton said the town never approaches on a daily basis.
With the buy in the Town’s usage rate would change from $2.82 per 1000 gallons to $1.58 per 1000 gallons, resulting in significant savings. Mayor Peggy Paxton, and the other Council members, asked for figures based on other daily usage estimates, such as 200,000 GPD and 250,000 GPD.
Payton said she is still waiting to receive those figures to present to the Council for their consideration.
