Capital Improvement Program

Background

The Capital Improvement Program is essential to the efficient functioning of the District, as evidenced by the requirement from both the Bond Order and State Collection System Permit. A well-planned CIP provides customerswiththeassuranceofhavingreliableandaffordablewastewatercollectionandtreatmentbothnow andin thefuture.

The Board has consistently financed its Capital Improvement Program through revenue bonds and pay-as-yougomoneys.AsofJune30,2023,theDistrictwillhave$82.0millioninoutstandingrevenuebonddebt,withtotal debt service of $8.73 million due before the end of the fiscal year. Unlike counties and cities, the District does nothavealegallymandateddebtlimit.However,theDistrictdoeshavearatecovenant.Thecovenantrequires theDistricttosetratesandchargessothatincomeavailablefordebtservicewillnotbelessthan120%offiscal year debtservice requirement.

ThroughoutthehistoryoftheDistrict,staffhascontinuedtoseekincreasingly effectivewaysofidentifyingand prioritizing individual projects, to ensure a more comprehensive and balanced CIP. In 1990, as part of the political process of forming the District, certain construction and rehabilitation projects were identified by the various member municipalities and sanitary districts.

Once these designated projects were completed, the District then focused on rehabilitating aging, undersized collection lines to minimize unregulated discharges of raw sewage (sanitary sewer overflows or SSOs) and inflow/infiltration (I/I). Inflow and infiltration are the intrusion of groundwater and storm water runoff into the collection system, which can deplete capacity in sewermains andatwastewater treatmentplants.

As part of this comprehensive evaluative process, the District developed and implemented a program to monitor wastewater flows from the various parts of the sewerage system. The flow monitoring data was used to develop acomputerhydraulic modelof theflows oftheseweragesystemtohelpidentify andremediatethe worst areasofinflowandinfiltration.