With the Philadelphia Water Department proposing a rate change for 2013, we're running a series of informational posts to explain how water rates are set, the terminology behind the rate setting process, and the investments PWD is making in our city's infrastructure, health and environment.
OK, maybe not as exciting as that other Bond we’ve been watching since Dr. No came out in 1962, but this bond—along with several of its brothers and sisters—does just as much to keep us from suffering major disasters at the hands of diabolical enemies (in our case, rust, corrosion, wear, and damage).
Some time ago, the local papers asked opinion leaders in the region what they would recommend the city do with a billion dollars. At the Water Department, we know exactly what we would do. That money would go right into fixing and replacing some of the 6,000 miles of pipes and tunnels that carry stormwater off the streets, our wastewater (a nice way of saying what you flush out of your house) to our treatment plants and our drinking water back to our houses. It’s a system that has been around for decades and, frankly, is starting to show its age a little. The tough part is that a billion dollars wouldn’t even begin to cover everything we have to do and the last time we checked, no one was going around handing out billion-dollar checks. (Could you imagine the size of that novelty check?)