WARREN — A rate study is being conducted on Trumbull County’s water and sewer services.

Trumbull County commissioners approved the cost of the studies at a November meeting, on the recommendation of Gary Newbrough, county sanitary engineer.

The county will pay MS Consultants of Youngstown $32,485 for a long-range study of the Trumbull County Combined Sanitary Sewer District, which absorbed the Trumbull County Metropolitan Sanitary Sewer District with a rate of $6.66 per thousand gallons of sewage treated and the Trumbull County Mosquito Creek Sanitary Sewer District with a rate of $5.75 per thousand gallons of sewage treated, as subdistricts in 2019.

The study will result in a standard sewer rate for all county sewer customers, according to the contract language provided on the commissioners’ agenda.

Newbrough in 2019 said the goal is to have one single rate for customers in both districts by 2026.

The county has about 21,000 sanitary sewer customers.

The county will pay MS Consultants $39,100 for a long-range study of the water rates in the Southeast Water District and the Combined Water District, with the goal of arriving at a countywide water rate. There are six water districts, and they too may be combined into one district, Newbrough said.

Newbrough said some relatively recent events will have a “significant impact” on the future of the county’s sewer services — obtaining Ultium Cells as a large customer, which will benefit the district, and a sewage treatment deal with the city of Warren that is more expensive to the county than prior contracts with the city for the treatment of county customer sewage.

The last rate study was completed in 2009 or 2010, Newbrough said.

HEATON CHUTE

Newbrough announced this month that a project a long time in the works to bring sanitary sewer services to the Heaton Chute area in Weathersfield is moving forward in 2022, for less money than anticipated.

The $3 million project has several grant sources, and has qualified for a principal forgiveness program from the Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

The county has a 0-percent interest loan for the project through the fund, but also met the fund’s standards for regionalization, leading to $300,000 in loan forgiveness from the agency, meaning that amount won’t have to be paid back through customer capital charges, Newbrough said.

The project also received a $750,000 grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission, a $250,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, and is likely to receive $550,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds, Newbrough said.

And if a request for funds through Ohio House Bill 168’s water and sewer infrastructure program is granted, the burden on the customers will be reduced dramatically, leaving a balance of just $100,000 of the $3 million project, Newbrough said.