The Derby Mayor’s Office and the South Central Regional Water Authority are bickering over who should pay for an estimated $978,500 worth of maintenance needed on the East Derby Water Works.
“I guess they feel we are a small town and we can be pushed around. I can’t be pushed around,” Mayor Anthony Staffieri said last week.
The East Water What?
The East Derby Water Works is a water distribution system providing water to 500 Derby customers. The pipes and pump stations are owned by the city, but the water is provided by and the system is operated by the South Central Water Authority.
The system was built in 1971 under a contract set up between the city and Birmingham Utilities. In 2008, the South Central Regional Water Authority acquired Birmingham Utilities for $40 million.
The 7 miles of pipes of the East Derby Water Works was included in the deal.
Sell It?
Staffieri has repeatedly said he wants to sell the pipes and pumps because the city gets no benefit from owning the system. The Board of Aldermen has been researching the issue for several years and has met in executive session to discuss the matter on numerous occasions.
In Staffieri’s December 2011 inaugural speech, the mayor said money from the sale of the East Derby Water Works could be used to bolster the city’s fund balance. In addition, future revenue derived from taxing the system’s new owner could possibly be used for everything from helping Derby schools to replacing computers in Derby City Hall, the mayor said.
However, in June 2012, staffers from the state’s Department of Public Health examined East Derby Water Works as part of a regularly scheduled inspection. They sent a letter to the Regional Water Authority outlining 13 maintenance projects that needed to be done over the next five years to keep the system up to snuff.
The projects total $978,500, according to Kate Powell, a spokeswoman for the Regional Water Authority.
Dispute Goes Public
Powell said Derby is responsible for those repairs. The Regional Water Authority does routine day-to-day maintenance on the system but, according to the contract, major capital improvements are Derby’s responsibility, she said.
The Regional Water Authority sent letters in July and August to Derby telling the city to pay for the upgrades. As of last week, Derby had not responded.
Aldermen Art Gerckens brought the issue to the light by bringing copies of the Regional Water Authority’s letters to the Sept. 27 meeting of the Derby Board of Aldermen.
He questioned why the city wasn’t answering the letters and why the Aldermen weren’t being kept in the loop.
Staffieri said in the past, Birmingham Utilities performed the type of work the Regional Water Authority is now trying to get Derby to fund.
The mayor, who previously worked as an electrician, said Regional Water Authority once tried to inflate the cost of some electrical work needed on the water distribution system.
“I’m challenging them again — for work that they should be doing,” Staffieri said.
Derby officials have previously been angry with the Regional Water Authority for using the East Derby Water Works to supply water to some customers in Orange.
Regional Water Authority said they stopped that practice, according to a July 31 letter to the mayor.
The Repairs
The upgrades and maintenance needed to East Derby Water Works are needed, but don’t pose an immediate threat to the drinking water or the system, Powell said.
The June inspection by the state health department found no violations — just a list of items that needed to be addressed over the next five years.
The punch list includes 13 items, including:
- Re-coating a water tank
- Re-grouting water tanks
- Replacing a roof on a pump station
- Replacing generators, switches and motors at pump stations
“It’s like maintaining your house. You need to paint it every once in awhile, you need to put on a new roof every once in awhile,” Powell said. “There’s a public health safety concern in the long run. We are not talking about anything immediate.”
Derby isn’t exactly awash in extra money these days. In addition to struggling to fund its schools each year, the city’s Water Pollution Control Authority is reviewing a punch list of repairs that total $31 million.
E‑mails seeking additional information were sent Wednesday to Staffieri and Corporation Counsel Joseph Coppola.
The Valley Indy sent an e‑mail to the state Department of Health Sept. 28 requesting to see the correspondence the agency sent in June to the Regional Water Authority, and for the authority’s response to the state.
A spokesman for the health department said Sept. 28 the agency would have to consult with its lawyers.
The documents below are three letters the Regional Water Authority sent to Derby City Hall over the summer:
