St. Louis-area city signs 3-year accord with county water department

By JEREMY KOHLER

Oct. 10, 2000 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)—The C-1 water district in Barnhart has signed a 30-year wholesale agreement to buy water from the St. Louis County Water Co., water district officials say.

County Water will build a pipeline to the C-1 district from its Meramec River water-treatment plant in south St. Louis County. The project is scheduled to begin next year and would take three years.

Residents of the C-1 district voted 783-649 last year to authorize the district to borrow up to $25 million to build the pipeline and upgrade its systems.

The district will actually borrow $13 million and will pay County Water for the pipeline with user fees, said C-1 manager Ron Smith.

C-1 officials said that water rates will rise districtwide by $6 to $8 per customer.

The C-1 board of directors previously turned down a bid from the water company to take over the district and expand its water supply at the same rate paid by customers in St. Louis County, a savings of about $6 for each household, for customers of C-1.

C-1 officials said that handing the district to the water company would mean ceding control of a local utility with a democratically elected board to a national corporation. The St. Louis County Water Co. is owned by New Jersey-based American Waterworks Co.

The C-1 district has 10,000 residential and business customers. Officials say it is growing at a rate of 4 percent a year.

C-1 officials said they would buy water from County Water because the Barnhart area was growing rapidly and was in need of good water. The district relies on a groundwater supply, which, officials say, is at times nearly tapped.

"This is a big step for us and for Jefferson County as a region," C-1 president Richard Hammond said in a statement. "We believe that not only our customers, but Jefferson County as a whole, will benefit from this alliance."