Sewer rates
The following is what Penn Hills customers have paid for sewer service since 2008. In parentheses is the portion set by the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority. All charges are per 1,000 gallons of water used:
2008 $9.73 ($3.42)
2009 $10.07 ($3.76)
2010 $10.68 ($4.37)
2011 $10.99 ($4.68)
2012 $10.99 ($4.68)
2013 $11.32 ($5.01)
2014 $12.17 ($5.86)
2015 $12.82 ($6.51)
2016 $13.54 ($7.23)
2017 $17.88 ($8.03)
Source: Penn Hills ratepayer summary
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Updated 2 hours ago
Penn Hills resident Georgia Homer saw her $146 sewer bill this month and thought someone had made a big mistake.
With a steady stream of bills that hovered around $60, she said the sudden hike shocked her. When she called the billing agency — the Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority — for answers, she found out she was not alone in her dismay. A recorded voice told her she was 15th in line to talk to someone at the authority. Then it took an hour and a half to get through.
“Everybody's complaining,” she said.
The complaints are rooted in rate hikes by the municipality that doubled the $15 fee charged for sewer service and added $3.54 to the charge for every 1,000 gallons of water used. That hiked the municipal charge of $6.31 by more than 50 percent to $9.85 per 1,000 gallons. Add in charges from the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, and the cost of Penn Hills' sewer service is $17.88 per thousand gallons, compared to $13.54 in 2016.
Charges for service from Alcosan have also steadily increased since 2008, when customers were billed $3.42 per 1,000 gallons by that agency. Last year's charge of $7.23 increased to $8.03 this year. Penn Hills officials have no control over the rates charged by Alcosan.
“It's a shame the residents have to take it up the wazoo,” Homer said. “Thank God I don't have family here. If I did, I'd move. There are going to be a heck of a lot more homes for sale at this rate.”
According to Alcosan, the average customer uses approximately 13,000 gallons of water — which is what sewer charges are based on — per quarter. Sewer charges for the average water user will increase $56.42 per quarter this year, or $225 annually. With the service fee increase to $30 a quarter, the average customer will pay about $285 more a year overall.
Mayor Sara Kuhn said the rate increases were necessary for maintenance of the system, noting that the municipality invested $20 million to fix deficiencies ordered by the federal government after being cited in the 1990s. Having fixed those problems, the municipality can't afford to let the sewer system go downhill again, Kuhn said.
“They deteriorated to the point that they did because no council wanted to vote for an increase, because that's not popular,” Kuhn said. “I'm not going to leave for the next administration to be fined or be put into a position that I was when I came into this board. I will not do that.”
Samson X Horne is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-871-2325 or shorne@tribweb.com.
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