ST. LOUIS – Top water officials in St. Louis said the city is in desperate need of infrastructure upgrades and repairs.
The City of St. Louis granted FOX 2 team exclusive access to the St. Louis Water Treatment Plant on Wednesday.
“What you’re hearing is water leaking from around the valves and piping in the plant here,” said Kurt Skouby, director of public utilities for the City of St. Louis. “There’s always going to be some leakage, but not this much.”
Leaky pipe at St. Louis Water Treatment Plant
Skouby has spent his entire career at the city’s water department, working his way up to director more than a decade ago.
“Our average output is around 110–120 million gallons a day, so it’s getting close to a 1/3 of the population of the City of St. Louis,” he said.
Skouby said the city’s water department needs additional funding to keep up with inflation, repairs, and other infrastructure needs.
The city is down two pumps now; one of the machines is responsible for pushing 36 million gallons of water to the distribution system.
Water pump at St. Louis Water Treatment Plant
“We can operate with this pump down. The problem is, if we don’t get it fixed, these other pumps are the same age, and we’re seeing issues with them,” Skouby said.
He said it will take two years and $650,000 to replace just one pump.
From broken machinery to aging equipment, the utilities director said it’s not ideal because his reserve funds are drying up. He went from $33 million recently to $2 million.
“We need to be able to build up our reserves again, so we can start proactively,” Skouby said. “Start replacing some of these pumps, waters, and other items that we’re seeing fail.”
The Board of Aldermen will take the first vote Thursday on raising the water rates in St. Louis. If approved, residents would see a $15 increase on their water bill next month and then $30 in January.
According to the city, if the rate increase is approved, it’s still below average compared to other water companies:
St. Louis City charges $75 per quarter
St. Louis County charges $158 per quarter
Kansas City, Missouri, charges $161 per quarter.
Earlier this month, some aldermen discussed the water rate proposal at a news conference.
“Quite frankly, our water department is underwater,” Board of Aldermen President Megan Green said.
Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer of Ward 1 said they have been handed an emergency situation.
While the city is quick to tout a 13-year-long run for not raising rates, the city is also the first to admit– it’s why there are so many issues today.
“[It’s] one of the things that the audit from Nicole Galloway’s office found,” Schweitzer said.
Skouby said his department presented a rate increase back in 2016, but it never left the committee.
“We had something before the Board of Alderman in 2016, and no action was taken,” he said.
The City of St. Louis has seen at least two major water main breaks since mid-May. Interstate 64 flooded forcing firefighters to rescue a family trapped in a van taking on water and another break recently in the south St. Louis area.
Green said there were roughly 60 water main breaks last year because of the aging infrastructure.
Inflation is also a concern.
Skouby said water treatment chemicals have spiked from $6 million a year to $12 million.
He said it’s simple. The money at the water department is drying up.
“We’ll get to a point very quickly where something like this breaks, and we don’t have the money to make the repairs, so it’s going to sit,” Skouby said.