The formation of LAWPC in 1993 created a special partnership between the Lewiston and Auburn water utilities that has helped save our two cities millions and millions of dollars, thanks mostly to not having to build a complex water filtration plant. The cities avoided the filtration requirement by combining their resources to aggressively protect Lake Auburn and maintain excellent water quality. The cost for a filtration plant was estimated to be as high as $50 million, with additional annual operations and maintenance expenses of $1 million to $2 million.

Other cost benefits of LAWPC include consolidation of separate and redundant entities into a combined effort of shared staff and resources. There was no need for Lewiston and Auburn to maintain their own entities, not when we could cooperate to save money.

Low water rates benefit all water customers as well as the taxpayers of the two cities. Most revenue for each water utility comes through metered use of water by commercial, residential, industrial, and governmental customers. However, much of the money passes directly through the cities to fund public fire protection. The Maine Public Utilities Commission has strict rules and regulations for funding public fire protection, mostly through fire hydrants. MPUC’s mandate is to ensure that all customers are treated fair and equitably.

MPUC requires each water utility to charge a fee to the municipality it serves to cover the cost of providing and maintaining public fire hydrants. The MPUC realizes that many water utilities in Maine were originally developed to provide fire protection. Providing drinking water was actually a secondary consideration. Today, water systems must “oversize” their infrastructure — including pumps, water mains, and storage tanks — to ensure sufficient flow for fire hydrants.

One of the most common misperceptions about fire protection charges is that they are essentially “hydrant rentals.” But that term fails to acknowledge fire protection as the other crucial infrastructure that makes up a water utility. Without that infrastructure, the water could never get to the hydrant.

No matter how the water utilities are structured, MPUC mandates that a portion of municipal taxes go directly to the water utility to cover public fire protection and fire hydrants. When a water utility is chartered to provide fire protection, it is often two to three times larger than if it provided drinking water alone. The actual financial calculation is quite detailed, but MPUC essentially assigns a percentage of revenue that must come from municipal taxes.

The percentage is based on factors such as number of customers and magnitude of customer demands. Locally, Auburn taxpayers pay about $541,000 annually for public fire protection, while Lewiston taxpayers pay $593,000. If water rates had doubled or tripled due to costly filtration equipment, the resultant public fire protection charges would have doubled or tripled as well.

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