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YOUNGSTOWN - A study commissioned by the city administration calls for 14% annual sewer rate increases for the next five years to pay for more than $400 million in federally mandated wastewater improvements.
The rate study's findings, unveiled Thursday, were quickly opposed by council members, who said residents cannot afford the proposed significant increases and urged the administration to find grants and make cuts to city expenses to help reduce those percentages.
Council members said they wouldn't approve rates that high unless the administration made cuts or reallocated funds.
Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, said: "We've got to come out of this building with more ingenuity than 'you got to get a 14% rate increase or we can't borrow the money.' We may need to say, 'Hey, finance department, this department, that department, y'all working for it. Y'all working 30 hours a week.' Something, because we're not putting it on just seniors, we're putting it on a class of people."
Turner said convincing constituents to pay 14% increases is a "hard sell."
Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward, said: "We're not naive here to think that we're going to find $20 million in the couch cushions of the wastewater treatment plant. But we have to go back to our constituents and say, 'We've looked and we are running as efficiently as possible.'"
Ray said options include having some of the money come from the general fund or finding even $1 million from different departments.
"We need to come back and show that grit," Ray said.
The study was done by Arcadis, an international firm that specializes in water and sewer analysis. Arcadis also conducted a 2024 study that resulted in the city increasing rates by 5% annually for four years, starting in 2025.
This new study would increase those 5% annual rate increases in 2027 and 2028 by an additional 9%, to bring them to 14%. It also proposes 14% annual increases for 2029, 2030 and 2031 or else the city will be unable to pay the debt service on more than $400 million in wastewater improvements it has either done or is planning as part of a federal consent decree.
City wastewater officials and Said AbouAbdallah, an Arcadis vice president who gave the presentation at Thursday's council public utilities committee meeting, said they couldn't say what the increase would cost a typical Youngstown wastewater customer.
But based on the 2024 report, an average wastewater customer in the city discharges about 500 cubic feet of wastewater a month.
The current monthly rate at that amount is $87.20.
Under the 5% rate increase structure, it is supposed to go up to $91.56 a month in 2027. Under a 14% increase, it would be $99.41 a month.
Under the existing 5% increase, it is supposed to go to $96.14 a month in 2028. Under a 14% increase, that would be $113.33 a month.
In the scenario with 14% annual increases, the monthly charge for an average customer would be $129.19 a month in 2029, $147.28 in 2030 and $167.90 in 2031 - almost double what is currently paid in a five-year period.
An average city customer pays $1,046.40 in sewer rates per year. If the 14% annual increases are imposed, that same customer would pay $2,014.80 for wastewater discharge in 2031.
At the current 5% increases, AbouAbdallah said the city wouldn't be given permission by the state to fund the wastewater projects, which would result in defaulting on the federal consent decree.
The city's current annual debt for the first phase of the project - $74 million in improvements to its wastewater treatment plant - is $5 million a year, AbouAbdallah said.
But with two much more expensive projects, one that started last year and another that will begin early next year, that annual debt service jumps to $27 million a year in 2032 and will be that for 20 years, AbouAbdallah said.
The 14% annual increases over the next five years would permit the city to have the funds to start paying that $27 million repayment in 2032, AbouAbdallah said.
What will happen after 2032 is uncertain, but there would undoubtedly be additional rate increases.
Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works, said he will ask council at its Nov. 18 meeting to authorize having the city file a state loan application for parts of the upcoming wet weather facility project. Shasho said he would have rate information to council by early December, and the legislative body would need to approve an increase at its Dec. 16 meeting.
The public utilities committee will meet again Nov. 4 to further discuss the issue.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency had originally ordered the city in 2002 to do $310 million worth of work, but it was negotiated down to $160 million in 2014 with the expectation it would be finished in 20 years. But all of the work will end up costing $404 million, according to the Arcadis study.
The city plans to have all of the work done by Sept. 29, 2032.
As part of the federal consent decree, the city hired Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. of Youngstown for $42.8 million for the first two phases of a four-part project to keep water from flowing into Mill Creek Park's Lake Glacier and Lake Cohasset.
The first two phases, which started in December, are to Lake Glacier, eliminating four of the 14 overflow lines. The project is replacing about 8,000 to 9,000 linear feet of sewer lines that range in size from 36 inches to 60 inches with a new 96-inch sewer line, as well as bridge work, river crossings, efforts to lower the lake and the relocation of utilities.
The project is supposed to be finished May 29, 2028.
The city plans a compressed schedule with the rest of the interceptor sewer work at the park with the third phase done by April 18, 2031, and the final part by Sept. 29, 2032. Those phases will eliminate 10 sewage overflow lines to Lake Cohasset.
That project was estimated to cost $47.7 million. It will now cost $102 million, according to the Arcadis study.
The city's initial agreement with the federal government in 2014 called for the construction of a 100-million-gallon-per-day wet weather facility. But the rising cost of the work and the disputed need for such a large system were the reasons why the city argued in a March 15, 2024, federal court motion to reopen the consent decree that requires it to make significant and expensive improvements to its wastewater system.
During lengthy negotiations between the city and the federal government, an agreement was reached to honor the city's request for the smaller facility. Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the U.S. District Court's Northern District of Ohio finalized the deal Oct. 9, 2025.
That project is expected to cost $228 million, according to the Arcadis study.
The wet weather facility includes seven total contracts with bids for the first phase opened Nov. 8, Shasho said.
The city is able to pay the first phase out of its wastewater surplus, Shasho said. That phase is spending up to $3,779,391.57 for the demolition of any buildings on the project's location on Gibson Street, in the area of Poland Avenue, as well as grading the site, removing pavement and installing security fencing.
But the city won't be able to continue the project after that without state funding, which needs to be backed by a wastewater increase to city customers, Shasho said.
The second phase, which will be ready for bids in February 2027, for a 96-inch tunnel of 60 to 80 feet in length under water, he said.
"We cannot start this project and stop," Shasho said.
Ray said he agreed, but "we need to tell the public we've done everything we can" to reduce the costs by cutting budgets.
Shasho reiterated: "If we don't have the rates in place, I can't say we'll get the loan. I'll say it's more likely than not that we will not get the funding."