20061115Comment.pdf

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October 26. 2006 RECEIVED
2006 Nay /5 PM 2: 45
From: Bill and Carla Strane
Lot 60, Spirit Lake East Subdivision
ID,HO FliUi"iC;
UTiliTIES COLHAISSIGr.
To: Idaho Public Utilities Commission
Re: Case No. SPL- W -06-
Spirit Lake East Water Company request for increase
Weare responding to the request for comments regarding the request for a 100% increase
of water rates in the Spirit Lake East Subdivision by Spirit Lake East Water Company, a
company under the umbrella of Hansen Industries.
1. Spirit Lake East Water has owned this system for nearly thirty years. They have
merely maintained their system with no money going to upgrades or major
repairs. The number of homes the system is required to serve has increased
tremendously in the past ten years with no upgrades to keep up with growth.
2. In October 2004, the SLE water system had a major break down which caused the
homeowners a 10-day catastrophic ordeal without water, endangering the
residents in our community. There was no back-up equipment for the SLE system
and as a result a pump had to be ordered. After four or five days the community
was advised the wrong pump had been ordered, returned and another pumD ff-
ordered. The water reservoir had a leak in it. which allowed the tank to store less
than half its capacity. In addition, there was no back up generator in case of
power outages. As a result of our call to the Department of Environmental
Quality during the outage, SLE Water was required to make the repairs and fix
several other items, which did not meet DEQ standards.
3. DEQ requires self-reporting on all outages, which result in 20psi or less. This
requirement is to protect consumers from an outbreak of e-coli bacteria. To the
best of our knowledge, according to DEQ personnel, until October 2004 SLE
Water had never reported any of the many outages that occurred due to power
failure. In 1998 they had a three day outage, also not reported.
4. Spirit Lake East Water is requesting a 100% increase to recoup the costs required
to meet standards set by DEQ. Please note this rate increase request has nothing to
do about upgrades to their water system, but is designed to pay for repairs on the
existing system. Had the system been maintained to standards over these past
thirty years, their costs would not have been as grea.:
5. SLE Water has been reporting a loss in certain annual reports. We have requested
PUC auditors look at these reports, which show employee costs for maintenance
and clerical. We are concerned whether these emplovees are full or Dart time SLE
Water.
We have lived in Spirit Lake East for 10 years and have been concerned about the
maintenance of the water system. Now that there are many more homes on the SLE
water system our concerns have grown even greater. For Spirit Lake East Water to ask
for a 100% increase in our rates when they have failed to provide proper upkeep to their
system until forced to by the DEQ, seems exorbitant to us. Had they made appropriate
upgrades a bit at a time and maintained the system to its highest standard, their costs
would not have been so great when forced to meet standards. Now they are asking us as
consumers to replace their lost revenue for repairs which should have been a part of
maintaining the system these past 30 years.
Please look hard and long at Spirit Lake East Water s history of performance in their
service if
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31076 N. Spirit Drive
Spirit Lake, Idaho 83869