St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Court ruling puts Missouri American Water projects on hold
St. Louis County’s water utility says it has canceled $20 million worth of water main replacements this year because of uncertainty over a special infrastructure surcharge.
As a result, Missouri American Water Co. is reassigning workers, eliminating overtime and cutting contract work across its St. Louis County territory. In May, some projects were briefly put on hold while the company reassessed its plans, Missouri American spokesman Brian Russell said. Those projects have resumed, and work already under construction will be completed, he said.
But new projects to replace aging water pipes won’t get started until a water main failure forces the company to fix it, Russell said.
“Those main replacements are going to have to get fixed eventually, whether they’re in advance or after they’re broken,” Russell said.
Al Ratermann, vice president of the Utility Workers Union of America Local 335, said that there had been no layoffs but that reinstituting the surcharge was important to keep the more than 350 workers the union represents on the job.
“The company at this point in time has said the future is unclear, but they’re committed to keeping us all gainfully employed,” Ratermann said.
For more than a decade, Missouri American has collected a special surcharge on St. Louis County customer bills that paid for the costs of replacing aging water pipes and other infrastructure. Many water mains in the area are approaching 100 years old, decades older than the expected life.
But in March, the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals said the company could no longer collect the surcharge because the statute that authorized it applied only to counties with more than 1 million residents, and St. Louis County fell below that population marker in the 2010 census.
Missouri American Water and its regulator, the Missouri Public Service Commission, have asked the Missouri Supreme Court to review the Western District’s opinion.
