Akron residents could see water and sewer rate increases over federally mandated projects

There might be another utility rate increase on the horizon for Akron residents.

On March 1, Ohio Northern District Court Judge John Adams denied the city's request to eliminate a federal consent decree requirement that Akron build a new water treatment facility as part of the Akron Waterways Renewed project.

Then, on April 23, Adams denied Akron's request to delay building the treatment facility while the city appeals the March 1 decision.

City lawyers argued that if Akron is forced to build the facility, it will result in an immediate 23% increase in water and sewer rates to pay for the $209 million treatment plant the city has resisted constructing.

This is the latest development in a more than decade-long agreement to clean up local waterways through a series of massive — and costly — projects.

In an emailed statement, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said the city filed a motion in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals fighting the court's decision not to allow the city to delay construction.

"I have previously committed not to raise sewer rates in 2024, and that commitment continues," Malik said. "As our administration works to determine future costs for maintaining our sewer system, we will provide updates to the community about the possibility of rate changes in future years."

Adams wrote that Akron "seeks permission to fundamentally alter its 2014 Consent Decree and obtain approval to dump millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the [Cuyahoga River]," therefore undermining the purpose of the decree that Akron voluntarily agreed to in 2011.

'Complete agency overreach'

Adams noted that the consent decree has been amended three times, lowering the cost of Akron's compliance by over $200 million. One of the amendments allowed for building a smaller Northside Interceptor Tunnel, which the city said saved ratepayers roughly $50 million.

Those amendments, Adams wrote, were allowed because they didn't gut the consent decree's central agreement — that Akron stop discharging untreated wastewater into the Cuyahoga River and its tributaries.

Instead of building the new water treatment facility, then-Mayor Dan Horrigan proposed adding bacterial treatment to a nearby 10 million-gallon water storage facility and lending financial assistance to county projects that would address failing private septic systems in Springfield, Lakemore and Peninsula, which ultimately pollute the same watershed and rivers the U.S. EPA says Akron must protect.

While the Ohio EPA was on board with the idea, Adams sided with the U.S. EPA, opting to hold the city to its agreement to halt all sewer overflows.

Allowing the city to take those steps instead of building the new facility would represent an alteration of a deal reached in 2011, Adams said.

"In essence, 13 years after the Decree was entered by this Court, Akron wants to return to the bargaining table and obtain a Decree that requires less than the original," Adams wrote.

In June of last year, Horrigan issued a news release criticizing the requirement to build a new treatment plant.

“The U.S. EPA and the Department of Justice would like our residents and ratepayers to pay over $200 million to build a facility that would only be used at most three times per year,” Horrigan said. “The benefit of this building is almost non-existent."

"This is complete agency overreach and quite frankly, I know this community is tired of it," he added.

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron water, sewer rate hikes possible to fund new treatment plant