Rate increase failure halts fire flow fixes

Arizona-American Water Company has no intentions of footing the bill anytime in the near future for fire flow improvements in Sun City and Youngtown now that the company knows it will not be able to rely on rate increases to pay for the $5 million project.

In the wake of the Arizona Corporation Commission's decision earlier this week to strip the provision that would've forced water consumers to pay for the fire flow improvements, the fire flow situation is likely to remain the same for a while, water officials said.

Arizona-American Community Relations Manager Todd Walker said the utility's current financial situation prevents it from being able to afford the $5 million fire flow improvements, which is why it requested the rate increase mechanism.

Walker said the company will re-evaluate its financial situation after other rate cases are resolved and then re-address the fire flow improvements. He estimated the end of 2009 as the next possible time the company would be able to revisit the situation.

"It will be at least a couple of years before we could even begin to reconsider the improvements," he said.

Water officials stressed the importance of the fire flow improvements, including new piping and more hydrants along 99th Avenue, in southern parts of Sun City and in Youngtown, during the ACC hearing on the potential rate increase Wednesday but said recent losses in revenue make the improvements impossibility at the current time.

Commissioners expressed hope that other methods would be examined to expedite the fire flow improvement project, which they deemed was necessary for public safety in Sun City and Youngtown. The commission, especially Commissioner Kristin Mayes, could not see placing the burden of the cost of the improvements on taxpayers, however.

Sun City Fire District Chief Jim Sebert said after the ruling that his firefighters would continue serving the community. While he acknowledged extra hydrants would have augmented response times, firefighters are prepared to handle situations in the same manner they've been serving for years, he said.

"It would've been a project we would've liked to have available to better protect people in those communities that could use a couple hundred hydrants," he said.

Sun City Taxpayers Association President Marv Worthen, who was vocally opposed to the rate increase, said he is interested in working with Youngtown officials to examine other potential solutions.

"We're still going to keep our eyes open to see if there isn't something we can do... to help the citizens of Sun City and Youngtown," he said.

Worthen said his opposition to the fire flow rate increase had to do with the precedence it would set, not the safety issue, which he said he is still concerned about.

"I think that there are still some problems in Sun City with hydrants being further apart than we would've liked but the Fire District has indicated that they can handle the situation," he said.