Delcambre switching from flat fees to charges for water usage

Published 8:00 am Sunday, November 18, 2018

DELCAMBRE – Delcambre residents will soon be seeing a change in their monthly water bills.

For years the small town has used a flat fee service for water usage by its residents but that will soon change to a bill reflecting the actual monthly usage. This change in billing is due to new water meters and improved water lines that are being partial funding with a loan from the Louisiana Department of Health’s Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund (DWRLF) Program, which is a division of the LDH’s Office of Public Health. 

 In a press release from the DWRLF, it states that Louisiana is providing the town’s water system with a $2,013,000 low-interest loan through the DWRLF program, and has assisted the town with jointly applying for financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development to boost the total funding amount to $3,773,220.

Delcambre Mayor Pam Blakely said the town’s water system services approximately 1,000 customers, which includes all the town’s residents in both Vermilion and Iberia Parishes, as well as some residents outside the town’s limits.

“The town has been charging a flat fee of $22.50 for several years, but many residents felt that was an unfair billing system when some customers use more water than others.  Plus, the town has been losing money through this system,” Blakely said in the statement.

Mayor Pro-Tem Timmy Derise, who has served on the town’s council for the past 14 years, said the town had begun the process of purchasing meters years ago, but was not able to overhaul the system without additional funding.

“We’ve been piecemealing improvements for the past 10 years – changing some pipes and buying some meters along the way.  But now with this funding, we will be able to upgrade our water lines and fully install the meters to switch to a metered billing system, which will be better for customers and better for the town,” said Derise in the statement.

Derise also noted that about 40 percent of the town’s water lines are in need of repair.  

“The DWRLF has provided the Town of Delcambre an affordable way for residents of this water system to improve their local drinking water infrastructure,” said State Health Officer Dr. Jimmy Guidry of the Louisiana Department of Health. 

DWRLF Program Loan Manager Jennifer Wilson said the low-interest, subsidized loan will allow the Town of Delcambre to make improvements at an affordable cost, and the town is eligible for as much as $500,000 in principal loan forgiveness.

She said the U.S. Congress established state Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund programs in 1996 as part of an amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act.  

The program is jointly funded by an annual grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (80 percent) and the individual participating states (20 percent).