NTUA plans water/wastewater rate increase

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The good news is that in 2008, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority did not raise any electric utility rates. The bad news is that in 2009, NTUA will be exploring the possibility of adjusting rates for water/wastewater utilities, according to Walter Hasse, general manager.

In a report to the Navajo Nation Council last week, Hasse said NTUA strives very hard to keep utility rates as low as possible.

“We work hard to control internal costs, yet the cost of conducting business is continually affected by the high costs of fuel, material, equipment and human resources.

Even as we work hard to meet this demand, inflation and other rising costs continue to impact our operation.

“The cost of maintaining and upgrading our water and wastewater systems has been staggering. We understand that paying more is difficult for everyone, however, the Navajo Nation is developing in many ways and families are expanding; therefore, the need for utility services continues to grow. In order to keep up with and maintain our utility system, we may seek rate adjustments in order to provide safe, reliable utility services that our customers expect and deserve.”

Delegate Alice Benally said the weather has been extremely cold, and many Navajo families on extremely low income live in homes heated only by electricity or gas.

“Many of these people suffer when they’re disconnected and don’t have the funds immediately on-hand to pay for their accounts, so they come to us as delegates.

Particularly for myself, a lot of my discretionary is going for water, for gas, and for electricity for constituents.”

Benally said Navajo Nation Social Services has a low-income home energy assistance program. “I understand there was recently an open house where information was shared in the Shiprock area about concerns that people whose services were being disconnected was brought to the attention of staff there.”

She said NTUA is not regulated by any commission and “is not subject to the law that requires a utility company not to disconnect utility services to certain low-income residential customers for nonpayment. ... What are you going to do to address this? Or are you going to stand behind the fact that you’re not regulated by anyone and you’re just going to be disconnecting?”

Delegate Elmer Milford expressed similar concern regarding elderly fixed-income constituents and discretionary money going to help with utility bills. But at the same time, he said, there also are middle-income elderly individuals who also are running into problems.

“There ought to be some kind of formula, at least for them, so they can exist.”

Milford also noted a situation that had come up where a water line had burst. “Although it was in the meter and out to the NTUA site, they said that the pinhole was in the meter and it was on the customer’s side. The bill actually went up to over $2,000.” Because the customer couldn’t pay, NTUA shut them off, he said.

“So they got stuck with paying the bill and also the reconnect. It’s extremely hard for people that are on middle income that are trying to make a livelihood, and they can’t meet that bill that’s coming to them.”

Hasse agreed that NTUA is not regulated by the Public Service Commission, however, he added that there are programs available to customers that are low income.

“There’s balanced billing that’s available to customers, there’s payment arrangements that are available to customers, we also have a discount program for the elderly, and we also have a voucher program through the low-income heating and housing assistance program that will allow people to show us the voucher and they won’t be shut off while the funds are distributed,” he said.

“We’re really caught between a rock and a hard place.

When I arrived we had over $5 million in uncollectibles that were more than 365 days old. That was more than half of the total net income we were going to collect and a lot of that is uncollectible, so there is a tremendous balancing act that we’re trying to work with.”

He strongly recommended customers sign up for balanced billing, which allows them to pay a set monthly amount throughout the year, rather than being hit with high utility bills during certain times of the year.