Girard gets MVSD-treated water from four sources

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

Girard

With four sources, including Youngstown, delivery of water supply to Girard and portions of Liberty and Weathersfield townships is a complex matter, with suppliers adding surcharges along the way.

The water for that system comes from Meander Reservoir and is treated by the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.

To maintain water pressure throughout Girard’s service area, that city buys Meander water from Youngstown, Niles, McDonald and the Trumbull County-operated water supply system, explained Mayor James Melfi.

“We buy Youngstown water for the south end of the city of Girard, adjacent to Youngstown, because the water pressure’s best for our customers there,” the mayor said.

“We pay more for Youngstown (water) than we do for Niles” water, he said.

“We’d love to buy all our water from Niles,” but that would give some Girard customers an insufficient amount of water, he explained.

Youngstown charges Girard 40 percent more than the rate for Youngstown residents.

“Niles is the cheapest” of the four sources, even though it, too, imposes a 40 percent surcharge on Girard, he said.

Girard adds a 40 percent surcharge for its Liberty and Weathersfield customers.

In 2014, Girard paid Youngstown $999,767 and Niles $595,452 for water, according to the mayor.

“It pains me to charge a surplus to Liberty and Weathersfield. I have no choice, from the cost of water to the cost of maintenance. I would like to see water bills reduced or maintained at least at the status quo for everybody I provide water to,” but that likely isn’t a realistic expectation, Melfi said.

Melfi said his city needs to charge Liberty and Weathersfield customers more than Girard residents to cover the cost of the water distribution system for the townships.

“We’re laying pipelines. We’re putting in pumps. We’re doing maintenance,” he said. “If there’s a water (main) break in Liberty, we fix it,” and the same goes for any break in Weathersfield, he added.

“We, not only from our own residents, get complaints of the high cost of water, but primarily, our complaints come from the townships of Weathersfield and Liberty,” because of the large surcharge in those townships, he explained.

“Why don’t we sit down and talk about regionalization when it comes to water, and maybe having more uniform costs?,” Melfi asked.

“Obviously, we have diminished population” in the Mahoning Valley, with a large number of retirees here, he noted. “The cost of maintaining water and sewer is very expensive ... Somebody has to pay for that,” through grants or user fees, he added.

Underground water-supply pipe costs about $500,000 a mile to replace, said Dennis P. Meek, Girard’s consulting engineer.

The situation in the city of Canfield is simpler, with that city getting its Meander water directly from the Youngstown’s system’s Webb Road pump station in Austintown, but Canfield pays Youngstown the same 40 percent surcharge.

Last year, the city of Canfield paid Youngstown $1,047,766 for water, according to Joseph Warino, Canfield city manager.

“Our only other option would be to look to Aqua Ohio as a supplier of the city (of Canfield), and there would certainly be costs involved in being able to extend their system to the city’s boundaries,” observed Warino.

Aqua already supplies water to the Ironwood Boulevard area of Canfield Township near state Route 11, just east of the Canfield city limits.

“They do have a good product,” Warino said of Meander water, adding that MVSD provides “much more extensive” treatment than Aqua.

Warino is a former Mahoning County sanitary engineer.

The city of Canfield adds $1 per month as a service charge to its customers’ bills to pay for capital improvements to its water distribution system, which contains a pump station; two water tanks, each with a capacity of 1 million gallons; and about 200 miles of pipe.

“We’re fortunate to be able to do one or two streets a year,” of water pipe replacement, usually totaling about a quarter of a mile annually, Warino said.