| | | | | | | |  | City of Monroe
Item Coversheet
Meeting Date: 4/10/2023 |
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| | | | | | | | Individual Requesting Item: Mike Kennison
Expected Length of Discussion: 5 Min
Issue
As part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Lead Copper Rule, all municipalities are required to complete an inventory of all the water service lines throughout the community to identify lead and/or suspected lead service lines. The initial inventory must be submitted by October 2024. Over the past year, the water department has been including a user survey in the quarterly water bill to all billing accounts with limited response success. This survey includes instructions on how to determine whether their service line is copper, galvanized, plastic or lead. A response from the resident is very beneficial in completing the inventory. If no survey is received, the city must send personnel to complete the in-home inspection or must assume the service is lead which places the survey on the replacement list. This is time consuming and costly to the city. If allowed by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission we would like to charge customers up to a $25.00 fee if a survey is not completed and sent back in for their property.
Background Information
Consulting with Fehr Graham, they have seen similar initial response rates in other communities, and it is often difficult to set up in-home inspections due to poor responses. A solution often utilized to offset the cost of the inspection and to incentivize the survey response rate is the implementation of a service fee to homes that have not responded to the survey. A notice of this fee is attached to the survey included in the utility bill and processed on the next billing cycle if the survey is not received. The service fee is then waived once the survey is completed and returned to the City. For residents which are not physically capable of completing the survey, the fee is waived if an appointment is set up with the water department to complete the in-home inspection.
Financial Impact
Cost of Utility employee's to go door to door to conduct in home service material surveys. Increased cost for service line investigation if a survey is not completed.
Recommendation
If allowed by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, I would recommend that we charge up to a $25.00 fee for surveys that are not completed by property owners and sent back in for their property. |
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