Less than a year after San Manuel residents went from paying $4 a month in sewage fees to paying $27 a month, another planned rate increase is set to kick in.
In two weeks, construction on the community's new wastewater-treatment plant will finish on the same site as the old treatment plant, which will be demolished.
Thirty days after that, San Manuel residents will begin paying $10 more a month for sewer services. That $37 rate will increase to $46.50 after 12 months.
In the end, rates will have increased by more than 1,000 percent.
Some residents say the increases are too high and are a hardship for the small former mining community.
"Right now, households are charged one rate, which is a major concern for elderly and single people," said Deanna Hernandez, who has lived in San Manuel for about 20 years. Households, unlike the utility's commercial customers, are charged a flat rate.
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Commercial customers pay according to how much water they use.
The Arizona Corporation Commission, which sets utility companies' rates, said the rate increases are necessary to cover two things: the cost of operating the old plant and the cost of building a new treatment plant.
Today, wastewater services are provided by Coronado Utilities Inc. The old plant was operated under mining company BHP Copper Inc.'s permit. BHP, which charged households a sewer rate of $48 a year, sold its wastewater plant to Coronado in 2004.
Once it was owned by Coronado, a private utility company, rather than BHP, a mining company, the plant did not meet the state's requirements for plants operated by a private utility.
"It was operating in accordance with the proper permits and it was operating effectively, but when you're a private utility, there's a whole different set of rules that apply," said Jeff Parker, BHP's director of environmental and community affairs for San Manuel. "I'm not saying it's fair. I'm not saying it's right. We're as unhappy as everybody else that those rates went up like they did. That was not our preference."
Parker was a panelist at a community meeting April 19 to discuss the rate increases. Other panelists were Jason Williamson, Coronado's president; Sen. Rebecca Rios; Rep. Pete Rios; Rep. Barbara McGuire; Pinal County Supervisor Lionel Ruiz; Jeff Karnf from the Pinal County Sheriff's Office; and San Manuel residents Grant Waldref and Angie Pleagman.
Before the meeting, Williamson said he hoped it would foster a better understanding of how how the rates are set. The company wants to be "a part of the community as opposed to being a source of concern."
Waldref and Pleagman are part of Concerned Citizens of San Manuel, the 20-plus member citizen group that organized the community meeting.
The group formed in November and has been researching the background behind the rate increase, as well as trying to raise community awareness about the issue.
Waldref said his only disappointment about last week's meeting was that the Arizona Corporation Commission was not able to attend.
By the time they were invited, ACC commissioners had already been scheduled to attend another meeting, said Heather Murphy, the commission's spokeswoman.
But the commission will be at San Manuel's next community meeting on the increase. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at San Manuel Junior/Senior High School, 711 McNab Parkway.
The commission will hold a hearing within two years of when the $46.50 rate kicks in to decide what the rate should be to cover Coronado's cost of operating the new treatment plant.
If you go
What: San Manuel community meeting on sewer-rate increases. The Arizona Corporation Commission, which sets utility companies' rates, is scheduled to attend this one.
What: 6 p.m. Wednesday
Where: San Manuel Junior/Senior High School, 711 McNab Parkway.
