Sunday letters: City used water, sewer funds poorly

The Environmental Protection Agency has threatened Columbia with fines and possible takeover of the sewage system because of unlawful polluted overflows.

Our city is under an order to make upgrades.

Under this threat from the EPA, the city has embarked on a multi-year system upgrade that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Some estimate water and sewer upgrades will exceed $1 billion.

From 1998 to 2014, the city transferred between $4 million and $10 million annually from its water and sewer fund into the general fund for unrelated projects.

Now there is a lawsuit and a pending ruling from the S.C. Supreme Court as to the legality of these transfers.

City lawyers say municipalities may use water and sewer profits for any lawful purpose.

The big question to me is the definition of the word “profit,” which generally means the excess of revenues over expenditures.

Had city officials been using water and sewer money properly, for maintenance and upkeep of the system, there would be no profits to transfer, whether the practice is legal or not.

Over the years, customers already have paid the water and sewer system much of what is said to be needed to care for the utilities.

Proper ongoing maintenance may have prevented the EPA’s claim in the first place.

Now City Council wants to charge us a second time.

Go figure.

Columbia

This story was originally published April 18, 2015 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Sunday letters: City used water, sewer funds poorly."