Sewer Bill Explained by Supt. Shlatz 

2026-2027 Sewer Rate Increase

Dear Customer of the East Windsor Water Pollution Control,

As you are aware, the sewer rate for the budget year 2026-2027 has increase $100.00 or a 20 percent increase. The question is why is there such a large rate increase this fiscal year?

The cost of operating the treatment facility has drastically increased since the beginning of Covid with supply chain issues and the issues with disposals of our biosolids as well.

The Covid era created supply chain issues with getting materials and products in a timely and economical fashion. What used to take a few weeks now can take months and increase cost with limited availability of parts and chemicals.  The WPCA was not increasing its budget at the ideal amount to keep up with inflated cost hoping cost and supply chain issue would correct themselves over time. This has not happened and the WPCA needed to correct for this to help keep a 20 plus year old facility running and meeting permit.

The main drivers of cost increase have been supplies and materials like chlorine for disinfection from .99 cents a gallon before Covid to now $2.49 a gallon plus milage charge of $5 dollars a mile for delivery. Other factors like parts for equipment have increase with limited options for suppliers and the consolidation of the manufacturing and limited options for older equipment that we currently have in use.

Electricity and natural gas are other items we cannot control the price. We are locked in at a favorable rate for generation of electricity for most of our usage.

Another major factor being the cost of disposal of our biosolids. Our biosolids are one of the end products of the wastewater treatment process. In Connecticut, there are limited options for the disposal of biosolids. Biosolids disposal options include railroad transportation to states like Ohio and further south and west, over the road hauling to landfills in New York, Pennsylvania and further south and west in the United States and incineration i.e. burning of the biosolids and disposal of the ash. The East Windsor WPCA utilizes incineration which includes a price per ton to dispose of the biosolids and a transportation cost. The cost of disposal has increase for $90 in 2010 to over $ 600 dollars a dry ton in 2026.

Treatment facilities in the Northeast are trying to get places to incinerate their biosolids as they lose their options to go to landfill disposal. Biosolids is just not an East Windsor issue but a regional issue as well. New England is losing their landfill capacity and other biosolids incinerators have shut down in other states in New England which increase cost because the capacity to incinerate and disposal of biosolids has been shrinking over the last 10 to 15 years. The cost of biosolids in the Northeast will only keep on increasing. The East Windsor WPCA is exploring other options but even these options will need large capital investment in the future.

The sewer line break on South Water Street is another financial burden that the WPCA has had to work with. The WPCA used their reserve funds from various accounts to pay the cost of the repair which was around 1.2 million dollars. The WPCA has started legal action against the parties involved in this action. This situation has not completely drained are reserves but has put the WPCA in a situation where rates needed to be raised as well.

As part of the rate increase, $50 dollars of the rate increase will be put towards capital projects for our aging infrastructure. The $50.00 per customer will generate $200,000 dollars that will be put towards capital projects like pump replacement, pump station upgrades and other high dollar items.  As the WPCA has not or will not receive tax money from Town hall and we have not received any federal funds the Town has received i.e. ARPA funds as well. The WPCA is completely self-funded.

The WPCA understands the finical constraints of this economy, the WPCA could no longer absorb the cost due to circumstances out of our control. As the WPCA staff keep the aging facility running and comply with strict government regulations and dynamic world events that are beyond our control but increase our operating cost, the WPCA and staff are doing our best to control cost.

Sincerely,

Kevin Shlatz

Superintendent

The Town of East Windsor and the Water Pollution Control Authority of East Windsor

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