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ECUA Proposes Water, Sewer And Sanitation Rate Increase, Plus Extra Sanitation Fee
August 28, 2022
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) has proposed a rate increase for sanitation, water and wastewater services.
The ECUA board voted to advertise a public hearing on the rate increases for September 27.
Proposed Sanitation Rate Increase
ECUA is proposing a sanitation (garbage) rate increase of 6% plus the addition of a $1 per month fee to fund the construction of a new sanitation transfer station on Pine Forest Road. Customers will continue to pay the $1 per month until the transfer station is paid off, which is currently projected to be in 2043.
The rate increase applies to the collection fee. For the average family with one 90-gallon container, the monthly rate will increase from $26.39 to $27.67, plus the $1 fee for the transfer station. The transfer station location is the current ECUA complex at Godwin Lane and Pine Forest Road.
The motion approving a fiscal year 2023 budget with the sanitation rate increase and the $1 fee was made by District 5 board member Kevin Stephens, and seconded by Dale Perkins. It passed 5-0.
Proposed Water And Wastewater Rate Increase
ECUA is proposing a 5% rate increase for water and wastewater. For an average customer using 6,000 gallons, the increase will be less than $1 per month for water and about $2 for wastewater.
The motion approving a budget with the rate increase for water and wastewater was made by District 1 representative Vicki Campbell and seconded by Dale Perkins before passing unanimously.
Comments
49 Responses to “ECUA Proposes Water, Sewer And Sanitation Rate Increase, Plus Extra Sanitation Fee”
Just a little FYI, businesses do not pay taxes, they collect taxes. Taxes are a cost of doing business like rent, utilities, fuel, salaries, insurance, materials cost…and as such is included in the cost of the services or product that the customer purchases (a hidded tax on the customer, if you will). So truly taxes on corporations are just a hidden tax on the customer. If you want to complain about a corporation make it about how much they pay their CEOs, CFOs and other chief operating officers compared to their hourly wage earners not about the taxes they may or may not pay.
As much as I hate price increases and have no affiliation with ECUA or any of its employees, due to out of control inflation we’re experiencing right now their operating costs have increased as well.
It’s a viscous circle, gas prices have increased so FPL had to increase their prices (They generate power only from gas now) ECUA uses a lot of power so their bill has gone way up. Cost of chemicals to treat water has skyrocketed, insurance has gone up, fleet maintenance costs have increased, they have no choice but to raise their rates. It’s an unfortunate effect.
And yet they are giving out bonuses.
With the prices of fuel going up, it costs more to fuel the ECUA vehicles. Inflation affects everyone.
A rate increase for what improved service? The recycle plant has been down more than its been up! What’s the purpose of it when it hardly operates. I say vote “NO” and then let the cards fall where they may. I’m willing to bet they will still operate as poorly as they do now.
I bought my house 2 1/2 years ago in Cantonment. It was built in 1993 and trash service had NEVER been started here.
They noticed somehow and then threatened me that “If I didn’t start service there-I would be charged a $1000 fine”. I’m done with this whole area around here-we just get screwed every way we turn and I’m sick of it.
All the neighbors need to band together and start hauling to the dump as a group! Cancel your ECUA service stating “I’m moving out of state”.
They miss my garbage half the time anyway!
right because when fpl prices skyrocketed that was very humane so let’s increase water and trash bills because we hate humanity.
We already went from twice a week to once a week garbage pick up. It;s always the citizens that bear the price and compromise.
why not??e FPL SCREWED US-BIG TIME!!! the idea that it costs SO MUCH TO BUY GROCERIES WHY NOT???? It’s big businesses over Americans….how many taxes do you get out of paying like all big companies — it is left to the hard working struggling people to pay
Explain why with all the new residents and building they are picking up more while they were already going by there. WHY? Everyone knows volume is where your profit is under good management. Maybe that’s the problem, poor management?
I can see it going up if you’re going to pick up an extra day during the week. I live in Pace and you pick up the trash once a week. It sits in the can from Wednesday all the way to Monday and gets maggots in it. We live in Florida and it’s hot and it gets very nasty. Why can’t you pick it up twice a week if you’re going to have an increase? You’re forcing some people to want to just cancel your service and burn their trash which is inconvenient and also dangerous.
They are raising rates again!? It’s already went from $20 to $26 for a recycle and regular can. Both mine are half busted and after calling ECUA multiple times the past month, I still have a busted can.
It’s almost going to be cheaper to throw your garbage on a flatbed trailer and once a month haul it off yourself. What I use to do… 20 years to build a transfer station? Something smells and it’s not the garbage.
How is that privatization working for ya? Bring back publicly owned utilities!
By all means, continue to squeeze the little people until they revolt. And it won’t be nicely.
Every year you people want an increase ,I don’t get an increase in my pay why should you be getting another increase. You people don’t seem to understand that we the people only make but so much money soon you will have more of my check than I will. How are we to make it when all we see is increased utility bills and enough fees to chock a horse. You need to learn to do without as we do , it takes all we have now between food , gas , lights FPL and City of Pensacola what do you think you gonna get from us ………NO Increase
Rate hikes always have some potential pain for the ones paying but they can be important to accomplish goals. I contact ECUA regularly regarding the high cost of water for businesses in the Pensacola area and am not always nice about how I feel. But we need a transfer station. Most of those complaining about trash that is not picked up on time need to understand it is because of how long it takes to unload the trucks. That is because it take so long to get to the current station and they simply can’t get the job done in the amount of time given. This is definitely needed for Escambia to continue to maintain while still growing.
The women and men who do this job are truly admirable people.
Really? They want more $ to NOT pick up the trash??? Let alone ANYTHING other than the can. Tires, furniture or anything else requires a call (or more) to be removed. I’ve had tires sit 6 weeks or more and have to literally tell ecua every week and still be there. ECUA needs some competition, they’ve held the monopoly too long.
Kevin Stephens, why is a transfer station needed less than 10 miles from the landfill? Sounds to me like you’re spending money you don’t have at our expense. Not what you promised when you were campaigning, and definitely not what your constituents hired you for.
Didn’t they just raise their rates like last year or the year before? I love how these politicians vote on something without any input from the people from this county.
I am still salty about the school board raising our property taxes.
Worked for ECUA for 5 years after leaving base. Your paying for pure incompetence and waste.
A better alternative that I have advocated since 2008 would be to consolidate all sanitation functions countywide in one governmental body. I believe it would be cheapest if ECUA a special district of Escambia County was made the utilities department of Escambia County. There would be no significant reduction in the workforce “but” there would be a thinning out of the bureaucracy to include only one HR department, only one Attorney, only one IT department, etc. So, imagine if one department in Escambia County picked up all of the trash to include the recycles, provided a uniform service countywide and disposed of it in the landfill or recycling processing facility. ECUA needs to stop accepting recycled trash from all over the place. How much of it ends up in the landfill reducing the life of the Perdido Landfill?
@RETIRED
NOT A LIFT STATION, GARBAGE-TRASH TRANSFER…
here comes the neighborhood fly association
Yep pay more for less
Always have to boil your water,not that I would let my dog drink from the faucet,your garbage may or may not be picked up so yea go pound sand.
I did some digging to seek out the cost of the proposed transfer station. ECUA projected $15 million to build the transfer station on Godwin Lane – BUT, it also includes monies to replace a “parts building” at the Godwin property plus funds to construct an “Office type building with restrooms” at the compost facility.
Additionally, there is a need to replace 47 residential collection trucks that are 10+ years old and have reached the end of there service life. Twenty-one truck 2022/23 fiscal year and the remainder in the 2023/24 fiscal year.
There may also be the funds from this bond revenue sell to pay off a prior bond issue.
I encourage folks to check the ECUA website and pull up the meeting notes from July 19, 2022, conducted by the Citizens Advisor Committee – scroll down to page 9 of the 131-page document and begin reading. The CAC voted for option 3 which was sent to the full ECUA who approved the measure with little or no conversation as if it was just another day at the office and no big deal.
How long has Molino utilities had the 2 dollar improvement fee on the bill? It never goes away.
Increase for what! Ever since the new housing development on New Chemstrand South of 9m.rd. was built my water pressure has been barely more than a trickle. No increase!!
As of the 2020 census, there are 116,238 households in Escambia County. Probably safe to assume 80% of them use ECUA for trash, or around 93,000 residential customers.
With $93,000/month, they are probably borrowing between $12-15 million, financed over 20 years. That seems like a lot of money for just a spot to transfer trash so I would guess it includes a lot more stuff than just a transfer spot for trash.
ECUA got the ball rolling. Next rate increase will be Florida Power then the City of Pensacola water and gas. Might as well add the cable and phone company in there as well. The rumor of a big increase in Social Security that will be eaten up by part B will only add to the pain.
@ Retired — your math is off. If each ECUA customer pays a $1 per month for 20 years the cost is $240. To generate $240 MILLION has you calculated, ECUA would need a million customers. That isnt the case.
1 customer = $240.
100 customers = $24,000.
1,000 customers = $240,000
10,000 customers = $2,400,000.
25,000 customers = $6,000,000.
30,000 customers = $7,200,000.
ECUA needs some qualified management they could pay for any improvements needed if they improved their efficiency and created consistent routes. Ask a Supervisor why there will be three or four trash trucks in the same neighborhood trailing each other and you get the ignorant and arrogant answer “that’s just the way it is”
ECUA FPL all want to add to there businesses new this new that then budget for it out of what you have we live in what the state calls one of the poorest countries in Florida the pay in this county does not support your increases every time you want a new toy budget for it
Ecua would skip half the people’s trash pickup in my old neighborhood, and that’s was for the green cans – recycling cans was skipped more often. Bulk items, like couches, tables, etc, would lay beside the road for weeks before they got it. It’s not as bad now (off hwy 97). They need to do what we pay them for, and do it right, before they should be able to charge us more.
This is taking advantage of customers I oppose it
elections are over!!!!!!!!
what is the price of this lift station, at 1.00 per 1000 customer, per month, for 20 years is over 240,000.00. how many customers total?????? For 1000 customers is over 240,000,000.00 that’s TWO FORTY MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!
The city is hiking trash pick up too. Ironically, we have more people in the city now which means more money (taxes) to city to cover such overhead.. and we the people that have been living in the communities are getting a double whammy because sewer TAXES went up about a year ago. The city says it’s a fee… but that fee is on your tax bill… oh, the semantics of it all.
If you took the time to go back and read “Candidate Kevin Stephens” commitments in 2020, you will see he has fell in the swamp with the rest of them.
For me and my house, Stephens can go along with Slayton.
Didn’t ECUA recently have an increase? Another fee….this county fee’s the citizens right into the poor house! No thank you Vicki….I already feel like local fees on every utility is ridiculous. Here again….what choice do the voters have?
why complain they are going do
WHAT they want regardless of how
bad it hurts the customer…
approved**** with the current growth of escambia county it’s long over due ? I’ve seen these guys hanging off these trucks picking up limbs and leaves on the side of the road in over 100 degree weather rain or shine putting there life in danger. no one wants that job no more than someone working on a busted sewer line it’s just nasty with poop getting on you and the health risk you take. I get it no one wants to pay more even myself don’t want to pay more ‘ but let’s face it this area has grown big time and the need is there . thank you for your outstanding performance. ** e.c.u.a. rocks
Stephens has fallen into line and picked up right where Larry Walker left off after he was voted out of office. Remember, Walker voted for every ECUA rate increase for more than 30 years. Now ask yourself, just how much will this transfer station cost because the article is silent on this point? Are there any alternatives for this expenditure and is what has been proposed absolutely necessary? Charging every customer $1 per month over the next twenty years will generate how much money?
And whats a sanitation transfer station?(a garbage collection spot) DOESTNT ECUA ALREADY OWN THIS PROPERTY SO WHERES THE COST?
Appears #5 needs to be voted out like the old #5. How about cutting costs in your departments and i wont likely be around to see the decrease in 2043. AND how many more increases in your annual increases before then2043. At least 21!!!
What are the alternatives to ECUA? What are THEIR rates? How much to take it to the dump myself? This seems like a lot of money per month for lousy service…
This is RIDICULOUS!!!! I have to call at least once to twice a month to let ECUA know that their drivers missed our roads pickup! And their website says they pick up yard waste once a week, well my neighbor and I had yard waste sit for over a month despite multiple calls. I even have an email from a month and a half ago that said they were escalating my case to a supervisor and one would be in contact…….crickets! NO RATE INCREASE BY AN OBVIOUSLY MISMANAGED DEPARTMENT!!
When did the transfer station get approved because I’m was not aware it was. That will be in my back yard and from driving by the one on palafox, this will not be good at all in a residential community.
Kevin Stephen defeated Larry Walker largely by criticizing his support of rate increases. Stephen not only supports increases, HE leads the charge.
Haven’t gotten our ssn raise yet & rates going up
Yeah this is ridiculous – I mean even one of Pensacola’s largest financial employers gets paid -10% based on geographical location while their northern counterpart gets paid +10% based on theirs. insane. why don’t we give this attention? If one of Pensacola’s largest employers raises wages than maybe others in the area will follow instead of severely under paying people and having ever type of utility rate increased. Especially when the case for a 1/1 apartment is equally the same.
Not a chance ECUA! Everybody vote to fight this. The pay in this area sucks and is not moving fast enough relative to inflation as it is.