Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 9, 1994                   TAG: 9407110195
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

SEWER USERS MAY SEE RATE GO UP IN FALL

The Montgomery PSA Board of Directors on Tuesday approved the 29-year agreement with the Blacksburg, VPI Sanitation Authority. The PSA will hold a public hearing in late September on a proposed rate increase for its sewer customers.

The average PSA customer uses 5,000 gallons of wastewater a month at a cost of $21.25, PSA Director Gary Gibson said. To pay for the new contract, that charge would increase by 80 cents, or approximately 4 percent.

The sewage-treatment contract, an update of an agreement that's been in effect since 1975, will cost the PSA about $2,000 more per month. The sanitation authority wanted the increase to help cover the cost of expanding its sewage treatment plant on Stroubles Creek.

But the one-time jump also will protect PSA customers from repeated, future fee increases to pay for expansions in sewage-treatment capacity. The new contract also increases the amount of sewage the PSA can send for treatment.

The PSA provides public water and sewer service in the rural areas of Montgomery County outside of Christiansburg and Blacksburg. It sends sewage to the sanitation authority from about 350 commercial connections west and south of Blacksburg. The PSA also operates its own sewage treatment operations in Elliston, Shawsville and Riner.