SOUTHPORT — By this year, there were supposed to be 9,615 customers tied into the North Bay sewer plant on Edwards Road, a utility consultant predicted in 2007.
But it turns out there are only 80.
Utility consultant Gerald Hartman’s report to the Bay County Commission before the county bought the plant in 2008 for more than $20 million painted a rosy picture of the number of customers that would be hooking into the system. Hartman, who is scheduled to be at a county workshop to discuss utility rates March 17, also outlined a long list of reasons why the county should buy the plant from Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative.
“Within the next eight years, it is anticipated that approximately 6,900 wastewater customers will be connected to the wastewater system,” his report states. “Developers within the Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative service area reflect 4,700 of the 6,900 customers projected. The total number of customers in the North Bay Service Area have been projected to be 9,615 at the end of fiscal year 2015.”
Hartman, who could not be reached for comment, said in his 2007 report that there are positive aspects of the county’s buying the North Bay sewer plant, whose debt has caused utility rates to recently soar for about 5,300 unincorporated customers.
“Bay County can best meet the regional water demands and provide centralized treatment in northern Bay County,” Hartman writes. “Increasingly strict state and federal water and wastewater treatment operation standards [are] required by state agencies, and with these increasing costs of construction and operations of central and satellite water and wastewater facilities with and economy of scale protects against ‘rate shock.’ ”
Hartman wrote that without central water and wastewater service in the county’s retail system, “there is an increased risk of private sector pressure to allow construction and installation of substandard, privately financed and operated water and wastewater treatment plants and septic tanks.”
“The proliferation of privately financed and operated water and wastewater treatment plants will contribute to higher user rates,” Hartman wrote. “Bay County’s unique water resources have been determined to be susceptible to harm through contamination from the proliferation of package treatment plants and over-exploitation of the water resources.”
Hartman also outlined some of the potential downsides to buying the plant in his 2007 report, including one that came to fruition.
“County wastewater rates will see a large increase to nearly double the past rates, with the increased capability of the county system,” he wrote.
