I’ve already addressed this thorny issue at length once, but now that Eric Steinhilber, candidate for the Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners, has launched a new campaign website that makes the proposed region-wide wastewater management entity a key issue, I found reason for a brief update.
Mr. Steinhilber makes two remarks about the proposal, the first of which is:
Eric says “NO MWRA for Cape Cod.” Eric will lead the charge against the creation of a Cape-Wide Regional Wastewater Authority, which would burden Cape residents with new taxes and huge water bill increases. Eric will seek the protection of our water resources through the enforcement of existing regulations and common-sense, cost-effective solutions.
The second one, listed under the header of “taxes,” says this:
Eric will fight to stop any and all attempts to impose new county taxes on the families, seniors, and businesses of Cape Cod. Eric will work to protect residents by stopping Cape-wide sewer project proposals, which alone, could cost each homeowner over $60,000 in new taxes.
My earlier post (linked above) addresses comment number one, so I’m going to focus here on comment number two, specifically Mr. Steinhilber’s claim that a Cape-wide sewering project “could cost each homeowner over $60,000 in new taxes.”
Mr. Steinhilber does not cite a source for this figure, which is much higher than other numbers quoted by county officials and consultants in recent months.
Robert Ciolek, an independent consultant working with the Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative, reported last summer that the capital costs of region-wide sewering would range between $3.2 billion and $5.8 billion – a price range that does not take into consideration ongoing operating costs of $40 million to $68 million each year.
The capital costs alone break down to up to (repeat: up to) $27,000 per person, or $33,000 per property, Mr. Ciolek reported — at worst, a little more than half the amount Mr. Steinhilber quoted.
(However, this assumes that every single property owner on Cape Cod would pay into the capital costs, which Mr. Ciolek said is not the case. According to him, no more than half of all Cape residents – the region’s homeowners – would shoulder the financial burden. He also said that charging betterments on homeowners was not as equitable a system for funding such an infrastructure as through rates and fees for system users.)
So where does this $60,000 figure come from? Mr. Steinhilber appears to be misquoting a figure contained in the Cape Cod Wastewater Protection Collaborative’s April 2010 report comparing the costs of various wastewater management systems.
On page 27, there is a table comparing the various costs of a satellite wastewater management system, which is a system that serves “from 30 to 1,000 homes (wastewater flows between 10,000 [gallons per day] and 300,000 gpd), intended to treat and dispose of wastewater from one area of a town.”
The estimated capital cost range for such a system is $46,000 to $60,000 — and this is the ONLY time that $60,000 number appears in that entire report.
CONCLUSION
Mr. Steinhilber has it wrong. His claim that “Cape-wide sewer project proposals…could cost each homeowner over $60,000 in new taxes” applies the quoted dollar figure for one type of wastewater management project to a different type. Based on existing analyses, the estimated per-property cost for a regional sewer system is at worst $33,000, while decentralized satellite systems would cost nearly twice as much: $60,000. Further, that amount would not be applied to “each homeowner,” but to fewer than half according to Mr. Ciolek — who does not endorse that funding method.
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
…one question for you as well Mike…though you state that you get your figures and calculations from Mr. Ciolek and the CCWPC…just where exactly do they get THEIR FIGURES & CALCULATIONS from? …that is an ongling problem that even Andy Gottlieb and Paul fromt he Cape Cod Commission have yet to explain even after several years of putting out these figures…not once have they stated the exact source as to where the numbers came from? …and neither do you? …are you going to simply take the numbers as “gospel” because they come from the County???
You mean the numbers that are explained in considerable detail in the 58-page report I linked to? The one with 13 pages’ worth of appendices of cost breakdowns of existing systems? Yes. Yes I am. And until you or anyone can authoritatively disprove the data in that report, I have no good reason to doubt their accuracy.
…thank you for your candid response, Mike! …and just so that we are on the same page about this topic…until the data contained within the content of the aforementioned county report that you so reverently hold up as THE WASTEWATER BIBLE, then neither do the rest of us on Cape Cod need to have any good reason to believe in its complete and total accuracy until such time that its authors authoratively PROVE ITS ACCURACY! “Ciolek,” that name sounds familiar…oh yes, the gentleman who once worked for the MWRA, and also provides political contributions to the re-election campaign of current County Commissioner Sheila Lyons, one of Eric Steinhilber’s two Democratic opponents…interesting how small the political realm truly is here on Cape Cod…
That is from page one of the report. This is from page three:
On page six:
Page 45 on lists the facilities used to provide the key data cited in the report.
The report explains its methodology and contains supportive data for its findings. Disliking the findings, or the man who compiled the data, or the county that sponsored the report does not disprove the data’s accuracy — nor does simply saying “Prove the report is accurate.” That’s Obama Birther logic, and it unnecessarily muddies a complex situation. The burden of proof here is on the Doubting Thomases. If anyone has sound evidence that contradicts anything in that report, present it here. I welcome it.
Finally: none of this refutes the main point of this post: that the number Mr. Steinhilber quoted was inaccurate in that it was attached to the wrong wastewater treatment model. Again, someone provide evidence to the contrary. Until that happens, I stand by my conclusion.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE that the report in question, itself, clearly states that its cost figures are merely “conceptual” and BASED UPON “ASSUMPTIONS”, NOT concrete fact or a readily identifiable reference resource!!- “Comparison of Costs for Wastewater Managment Systems Applicable to Cape Cod (2010),” by the Barnstable County Wastewater Cost Task Force – Page 3 (third paragraph from the bottom) – “… the cost estimates presented in this report are conceptual and based on a uniform set of assumptions…”,
The full sentence reads: “While the cost estimates presented in this report are conceptual and based on a uniform set of assumptions, they are supported by a review of actual data for nine example projects.”
That is still more of a factual basis than any argument to the contrary. I repeat: if someone knows of any documentation of any kind that refutes the report’s findings and backs its premises with sound data, post it here. Post a link and let everyone read it and draw their own conclusions based on fact.
This will be the last comment I allow on this tangent. If someone has a response to what my post was actually about, i.e., that Mr. Steinhilber’s quote was inaccurate, I’ll allow it, but no more pointless circular debates about the county wastewater report. Stay on topic, folks.
But Mike! If you insist that I back my shrill accusations with actual facts, the lack thereof makes them far less accusatory. Indeed, I may soon find myself with no substance behind me at all! Which means I’ll have no other choice than to ramp up my shrillness, in order to compensate.
What we need around here is a return visit from the gun nuts. Those guys *really* know how fabricate themselves some outrage!
Mike, initially I simply took your word for it, but after actually checking Eric Steinhilber’s new campaign website for Barnstable County Commissioner…no where do I find the verbatim statment, “Eric will work to protect residents by stopping Cape-wide sewer project proposals, which alone, could cost each homeowner over $60,000 in new taxes.” It appears that Mr. Steinhilber does NOT make the claim that each homeowner could pay over $60,000 in new taxes…the main claim and hype that your entire blog posting for today is based upon…which turns out be be a lot of HOT AIR…once again!
Ok, Mike, my apologies, I finally did locate the quote in question on Mr. Steinhilber’s website. However, I think that I may have found the answer for you as well. REFERENCE: The Enterprise Newspaper, 06/03/2011, “How Can Barnstable County Overcome Wastewater Sticker Shock?” By Michael Bailey – http://capenews.net/communities/region/news/1120 – Contained within the previously-noted article, Robert Ciolek states the following: “The capital costs alone break down to up to $27,000 per person, or $33,000 per property, Mr. Ciolek told the Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners this week. That, he added, is assuming that every person helped pay into such a project, which would not be the case; he said no more than half of all Cape residents—homeowners—would shoulder the financial burden.” If one takes the figure of $33,000 provided by Mr. Ciolek last summer, and then takes into consideration what he said about only one-half of the homeowners would probably actually shoulder the financial burden, then the figure of $33,000 would need to be doubled to $66,000 per property which is even 10% more than what County Commissioner Candidate Steinhilber came up with. Mr. Steinhilber more than likely underestimated the suffocating tax burden that would be thrust upon Cape Cod homeowners if such a scenario were allowed to take plance. Thanks.
Look harder. Under “issues”:
TAXES
Eric will fight to stop any and all attempts to impose new county taxes on the families, seniors, and businesses of Cape Cod. Eric will work to protect residents by stopping Cape-wide sewer project proposals, which alone, could cost each homeowner over $60,000 in new taxes.
I have a screencap of the page, and I’ll post it if necessary.
I could argue that the $27,000 figure, when doubled, is only $54,000 and thus LESS than what Steinhilber quoted. I found a precise and explicit reference to the $60,000; fudging the math to fit a counter-argument is insufficient.
I think Mr. Steinhilber needs to answer this question himself, directly, and explain where he got the $60,000 figure.
An aside: this all also ignores the fact that Mr. Ciolek himself is NOT advocating this funding approach because of its undue and unbalanced financial burden on homeowners.
You are absolutely correct, Mr. Steinhilber, does need to explain exaclty where he obtained the figure from, at some point if and when it truly becomes relevant. ^_^