Wedgefield residents are meeting Thursday night to discuss Orange County taking over as the neighborhood's water utility.
Residents have long complained about the quality and cost of the water. The state fined private utility Pluris in July for high levels of cleaning byproducts in the water.
This is the first of several meetings to see if residents want Orange County to provide water to Wedgefield. If Orange County were to buy private water utility Pluris, they would have to pass the cost of the sale and retrofitting the water plant to every household in Wedgefield. That cost would somewhat offset by the lower rates Orange County charges.
A staff analysis found that for most users, their monthly bill would go down as long as it costs $20 million or less to buy the plant. At the most expensive option, bills would go up anywhere from $2 to $20 a month.
The challenge now is to see if residents really do want the county to move forward. If so, it would take both a vote from the county commission and a majority of Wedgefield residents voting to approve the deal.
Pluris would have to agree to the sale, or the county would have to use eminent domain to take over the water plant.
The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at the new Wedgefield school. Residents are asked to bring their last three water bills.
Check here for the staff analysis, or see below for a snippet.
[caption id="attachment_64752" align="aligncenter" width="764"]
The highlighted gray boxes are the average use in Orange County. The highlighted yellow boxes are scenarios where Wedgefield residents would pay more if Orange County took over Pluris.[/caption]
