New federal consent decree may mean 40% water rate hike

Just as the Guam Waterworks Authority nears completion of one consent decree to meet full compliance with federal Clean Water Act requirements, it now enters a new decree for yet more required improvements.

And while it ultimately means greater safety for the island's crucial water source, it also means higher rates for consumers.

GWA is about 98% done with a decade-long consent decree with the USEPA meant to address myriad deficiencies within the islandwide water and sewer system. But they're not done yet. 

A new consent decree focuses on further improvements to the waste water collection system, critical to the protection of Guam's groundwater drinking source.

"What was announced included the filing of the complaint and then also at the same time the concurrent filing of a negotiated agreement, by which we will take care of the compliance items that focus on the collection system over the next ten years," said Miguel Bordallo, GWA's general manager. He says they've been negotiating the terms with USEPA for about six years, every since he came on board.

"We agree that all this stuff needs to get done. To do it all in a period of ten years, which is what they initially wanted, this long list of things they want to be done in ten years would create a financial burden. So GWA's position has been we already have a plan that addresses really all of these things. Our plan takes us, we're using a 20-year timeframe," he explained.

For the average consumer though, the main question boils down to the costs. Bordallo says they tried to stretch the improvements over a longer time frame so as not to raise rates to a level customers could not afford.

"What doesnt help us is the cost of construction which we dont have control over so as we are able to get more competition within the construction market place hopefully those costs will go down and it will help in the long term with rates. but there will be a rate impact," he said.

GWA will present a new 5-year rate plan to the PUC in March.

So how much of a rate hike? Bordallo estimated, "We're looking between over the five-year period about a 40 percent increase, somewhere in that range."