February 9, 2010

Proposed price increases for bulk water in NSW would hit Tamworth Regional Council with a massive bill in the cost of supplying water to residents and a jump of something like 142% in the space of a year.

The TRC general manager Glenn Inglis says the cost of water would jump from $386,000 a year to $933,000 if a submission from government agencies to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, or IPART, is approved.

Mr Inglis says a review of bulk water pricing by IPART is considering the price of water for the next three years but if proposals from State Water and the NSW Office of Water get the nod, then ratepayers will foot a new bill with severe increases in water costs.

“They are seeking massive increases in bulk water costs that directly affect all of our water supply services. The increases in what we would have to pay are massive – and that’s only taking into account the impact of the water charges,” Mr Inglis said.

“The council is looking at something like a jump of over half-a-million-dollars in buying water.”

The seven town water supplies in TRC draw bulk water from various surface and groundwater sources in the Peel and Namoi valleys with about 93% of those from the Peel.

Mr Inglis said the proposed maximum price increases by NOW and State Water, if applied, would have a significant impact on TRC supplies plus other water users in the two valleys – and the consequences of those would be severe, particularly in the Peel which already is subject to exceptionally high bulk water charges for regulated water.

“The proposed maximum price increases are way too steep and too much of a burden in the short and long term on all water users, not just council.”

He said the projected impact would see the cost of water for Tamworth go from $378,405 to $912,517 or 141%. The cost of water for the other six smaller supplies at Attunga, Barraba, Manilla, Bendemeer, Nundle and Moonbi Kootingal would rise from 145% at Nundle to 147% at Manilla or from $3,660 to $9,030, 213% at Barraba and up to 343% at Bendemeer. He said the submissions proposed exceptionally high fixed charges, particularly for the Peel and were unfairly based on full cost recovery for the state government agencies.

And Mr Inglis says ratepayers will get a double whammy or a second wave of huge supply cost rises when you combine the water price rises with rolling power slugs.

The council’s power bill has had a significant jolt in the last few years from $1.407million in 07/08 to $1.764m last financial year and is set to skyrocket to $2.295m this year, with a 20% rise in electricity costs.

“If you look at our electricity costs – and the huge cost increases in our power bills over the past six months and the bigger increases to come over the next year or so - then the burden on the council and the community is doubly horrendous.’

“The TRC water supply plants are the biggest users of power we have. They consume huge amounts of electricity in pumping water to supply our users and the region.”