September 24, 2007

St. Louis (MO) was named as having the “Best Tasting City Water in America” in June at the 75th Annual Meeting of The U.S. Conference of Mayors. St. Louis competed in a field of 93 cities. Over 100 mayors attending the 75th Annual Meeting participated in a blind taste test involving five finalist cities: Anaheim (CA), Colorado Springs (CO), Long Beach (CA), St. Louis (MO), and Toledo (OH). St. Louis was selected by the mayors as the winner. St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay accepted the award trophy and a check for $15,000 as the winning city. Veolia Water of North America was the sole Corporate Sponsor of the City Water Taste Test competition.

St. Louis has a long tradition of providing public water supply to the city and surrounding area. It is blessed with a plentiful supply of water, and the Chain of Rocks Water Treatment Plant is situated on the banks of the Mississippi River just four miles south of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

The Mayors Water Council visited St. Louis to learn more about how the city Public Utilities Department turns the “Big Muddy” water into the “Best Tasting City Water in America.” Public Utilities Commissioner David Visintainer, P.E., participated in a Q&A session.

A. The city is served by two large surface water treatment facilities, one on the Mississippi River and the other on the Missouri River. The plants, which have a combined capacity of 300 million gallons per day (MGD), have an average day production of 145 MGD and peaks of well over 200 MGD. These treatment works were originally placed in service in 1895 and 1929, respectively, but have been extensively modernized and upgraded several times since.

Service is provided to a resident retail population of approximately 360,000 people; to a large commercial, institutional and industrial base; and to four large wholesale customers.

The distribution system is composed of 1240 miles of mains ranging in size from 4 inches to 84 inches in diameter, 26,500 valves and 14,900 fire hydrants. System storage occurs in two covered, finished water storage reservoirs totaling 130 MG capacity. One storage facility was newly replaced in the last eight years and the second was upgraded, including a seismic retrofit.

At the present time, emphasis is being given to continued renewal of distribution system components as well as seismic hardening of critical facilities.

A. As an enterprise fund of the city, all water system operations and infrastructure improvements are financed through the revenue generated by the utility. Some infrastructure improvements are cash financed while others are funded through the sale of revenue bonds.

A. Metered customers presently are covered under a three-tiered declining block rate structure. Quarterly usage is billed at $1.19/ccf for the lowest consumption. The quantity charge for the largest consumption tier in a quarter is billed at $0.71/ccf. Most residential customers are billed on a quarterly flat rate basis, which is calculated on number of rooms in the house, plumbing fixture count and a frontage foot irrigation charge.

Within the last ten years there have been two rate increases for the city, a 9.0 percent increase in 2003 and a 4.5 percent increase in 2004. The current revenue stream is being evaluated as we speak with respect to its adequacy. I believe that this analysis will indicate that further increases will be required to meet upcoming infrastructure improvement and renewal needs.

A. As you can imagine, we sometimes have to deal with some challenging and highly variable raw water conditions! Fortunately, we have a combination of flexible, well-designed treatment works; dedicated and vigilant employees; and good operational practices to address these challenges. Every effort is made to provide our customers with the highest and most consistent finished quality possible. We believe that our two purification processes which have the most impact on aesthetic water quality, including taste, are lime softening and continuous treatment with activated carbon.

A. The asset management program utilized within the water system is very well developed in some areas but still a work in progress in others. We have a very detailed and accurate depiction of our assets, especially for the distribution system, included in our geographical information system (GIS). Our work order system is linked to this GIS system for records tracking and costing. We also track a great deal of information on topics such as main break history. For example, for every main break or leak that occurs we record information that can be used to evaluate trends over time as well as to identify and prioritize replacement needs. We still need to expand on facility attributes included in the system and to improve upon its linkage to the utility’s Customer Information System. The information we are beginning to obtain through this program is allowing us to better identify areas to concentrate resources. Although difficult to quantify, we believe that the program is allowing us to more efficiently allocate resources, thereby reducing long-term capital outlays as well as operation and maintenance expenses.

A. Because St. Louis is blessed with a plentiful source of raw water and our treatment facilities have adequate capacity to meet foreseeable needs, conservation has not been as significant an issue here in recent years as it has been in many other parts of the country. The utility does, however, provide water conservation information to customers and addresses this issue at neighborhood forums.

A. Yes, the water system provides speakers to neighborhood meetings to inform the public about the utility’s operations, improvement plans, water treatment and quality, and value of water provided.

A. Like many urban water systems, we have many very new infrastructure components blended with older portions of the system. Some of our older facilities are national historic landmarks. For example, we still have standing three ornate water towers, which are among the handful remaining in the country. Although none of these water towers remains in actual service, they are all architectural gems and one is even open to the public on a regular basis for access to an observation deck/room at the top.