Having had experience with city governments and water departments, I think it’s high time we did something about the inequities surrounding water sales in the Valley. In Girard, the City buys its water from Youngstown, Niles, and McDonald. It adds a mark up and resells it to its customers. It even adds an additional 40 percent to those living outside its borders. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how water is priced.
Because electricity and natural gas are deemed to be so important, we do not allow private suppliers to charge us as they see fit. Why should water be any different?
It appears water rates are arbitrarily set with little regard to its actual cost. Just how much does it cost the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District to produce and deliver its product? Are they selling it to us at a fair price? How much should water cost the end user?
Has anyone studied the issue to find out exactly what it costs to bring us a gallon of water?
We know that our main source of water, Meander Reservoir, was built in 1926, so it has probably been paid off long ago. The pipes that make up the distribution system were put in the ground many years ago, and unless I’m mistaken, haven’t been replaced on any significant level. Though there have probably been upgrades to the infrastructure of the purification process it’s probably a safe bet that most of it is as old as the reservoir. The greatest attribute is the water and it is free. Every year “mother-nature” replaces what we use.
People who are great inventors or great writers are only entitled to the full benefits of ownership of their creations for a limited number of years, and then they revert to the public domain. I think 90 years of full ownership for Youngstown and Niles is long enough.
