Pasco homeowners seek to pull plug on water rate hike

The Florida Public Service Commission didn't get the overflow crowd it was expecting today. It didn't matter.

What the agency's commissioners got was a human face to put to the question of what it's like to live in a neighborhood served by Aqua Utilities. They heard how Aqua's proposed rate hike would affect people who are barely scraping by.

They heard from homeowners who said they keep egg timers next to their showers or who use buckets of dirty bathwater to flush their toilets. Others said they don't flush their toilets after urinating.

"It's a pretty gross way to live," Irene St. John said.

Jeanie Girdner told Rick Fox, president of the utility company's Florida division, she had to choose between paying for medicine or her water bill.

"We can't afford you, so what do we do? Go without water? God put that water on the earth," she said.

Aqua Utilities has about 3,200 customers in Pasco County.

The average Aqua customer pays about $150 a month for water and sewer service. Dozens of customers testified that despite the high costs, they still buy bottled water because they can't stand the taste or smell of Aqua's water.

"I hate washing my hands in it, and I certainly don't use it to brush my teeth," Linda Wittkopp said.

In May, the PSC found the company's service record was "marginal at best." But the agency still granted Aqua more than half of its requested rate hike – the company's second rate increase since 2008. More than 100 Pasco residents traveled to Tallahassee for the PSC meeting in May.

Aqua says it needs the higher rates to pay for $12 million in capital improvements.

"We understand the difficulty some of these folks are having," Fox said. "But we spent money on improvements. The systems we purchased were ones nobody wanted. They had been neglected for years by the previous owners."

The Florida Office of Public Counsel, which represents utility customers, appealed the rate increase, arguing that the company's service was unsatisfactory and the rates are unaffordable.

"We feel like that is still way, way, way too high," Public Counsel J.R. Kelly said.

PSC commissioners have been traveling the state to hear from Aqua's customers. The commission booked a 400-seat banquet hall in New Port Richey for today's hearing, although only 85 customers attended. About half gave sworn testimony.

Tammie Charles, who pays more than $200 a month to Aqua Utilities, said she cried when she got her last bill.

"I never felt that something was so important that I needed to speak up," she said. "This time I do."

Other customers spoke about how the water rates have affected their once-stable neighborhoods.

Zephyr Shores resident Bill Everett said homeowners in the mobile home park can't sell their properties because of the high water rates. His neighbor, Gerry Novak, agreed.

"Our park has always been a park that people wanted to be in, and that's not the case anymore," Novak said.

Most of the homeowners said they stopped watering their lawns after the last rate increase.

"I have an 11-year-old boy who has to play baseball in the road because I can't afford to water my lawn and it's full of sandspurs," Palm Terrace resident Tracy Murphy said.

Robert Provost, chairman of the Palm Terrace Civic Association, said the Port Richey community has roughly 250 vacant homes.

St. John said most Palm Terrace residents are now renters, many of whom move out after a few months.

"The neighborhood is very transient because people can't afford the water rates," she said. "It's becoming a blighted neighborhood."

Fox said he toured Palm Terrace on his own before the hearing and found the neighborhood conditions to be mixed.

"Some people seemed to be taking good care of their yards," he said.

The PSC's final public hearing is set for Wednesday in Lakeland. Commissioners will hear final arguments in early December and are expected to vote in February.