When Patricia Clifford and her husband Paul bought 40 acres in the hills near Huson 30 years ago, they knew water in the area was limited.
“We didn't know how limited,” she said.
“Water is not abundant, but we are lucky where we are,” Clifford said.
That's true. They are lucky.
Others are forced to drill for what seems like miles to hit water, which can take its toll on the checkbook. Still others find that water only trickles out of the faucet. City-county planning director Roger Millar has even heard of a family up Hayes Creek who got a building permit, and then discovered the only way to get water is by trucking it in.
If water availability is scarce in some areas, making drilling a well increasingly difficult, the next alternative is to turn to Mountain Water Co.
Many in city and county government are concerned that Missoula's private water company - the only one of its kind in the state - is not well-positioned to respond to Missoula's growth demand in the urban fringe.
City and county officials can dictate where a majority of the growth occurs by strategically installing sewer lines.
Areas that provide city sewer attract development because they can accommodate a higher number of homes than places without it. Developers love to build there because more homes equal more dollars, said County Public Works director Greg Robertson.
“It's a cause and effect. Absolutely,” he said. “Where infrastructure is, is where growth occurs.”
Knowing that, local officials get to pick and choose where the sewer goes. This strategy allows officials to plan for growth before it happens, Millar said. And the city's sewer has the capability to grow.
“They (Mountain Water Co.) have taken a different approach with growing their system than the city does,” Millar said. “If we can provide sewer but they can't provide water, we end up with less dense development and more sprawl.”
For 28 years, investor-owned Mountain Water has provided water to thousands of homes in Missoula. It is regulated by the state Public Service Commission, a group of elected officials who aim to protect ratepayers.
The company's general manager, Arvid Hiller, blames the Public Service Commission for the company's limited ability to plan for future needs. The PSC won't allow the current water-using customer to pay for the company to stretch pipes to land in the urban fringe.
The company's investors don't want to foot the bill either, he said. The whole “field of dreams” theory is not good business practice. It's too risky to assume that if the water company builds it, homeowners will come.
Right now, developers pay the company to install water pipes. Eventually, over time, developers recover those costs from homeowners.
But, as the city and county will point out, it's piecemeal. It's reactive.
“They (the PSC) don't allow us to do any speculation,” Hiller said.
Darn right, says the commission.
Commissioner Doug Mood, who represents residents from Ravalli County up to Lincoln County, said the PSC wouldn't be doing its job if it allowed companies to expand their businesses on the backs of existing customers.
At the same time, Mood acknowledges that “it limits the ability to look into the future.”
Other cities in Montana don't run into this problem, he said. Most cities provide both municipal water and sewer. People don't pay water bills; they pay for it through taxes. So the Public Service Commission isn't involved.
“It's a seamless system,” Mood said.
Beyond water for drinking, bathing and washing dishes, there's another concern: the cost of public fire protection. Someone has to pay for water in a fire hydrant.
The city of Missoula argued in 2005 that that cost fell largely, and unfairly so, on the city taxpayers. The Public Service Commission is in the process of figuring out an equitable way to divvy up that cost. In the next few months, it will release its decision, which will largely push that cost to Mountain Water Co. customers, bumping up their rates, Mood said.
One solution to these water woes is a unique project that Mountain Water and the city of Missoula entered into more than a year ago.
The city was ripping up Third Street to install sewer lines, City Public Works director Steve King said.
Instead of ripping up the streets twice, the city used reserve cash to install water lines at the same time - something that hadn't happened before.
The water company pitched in money to increase the size of the water lines to accommodate future growth, and developers building homes in the area pitched in to defer a portion of the cost.
Over the next 10 years, future homeowners in that area will pay extra to hook up to water, and that money will trickle back to the city.
Whether that is a model for the future remains to be seen, King said. It depends on whether the city is compensated according to the deal struck with the water company.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at Chelsi.Moy@Missoulian.com.
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