Intergovernmental responsibilities for water supply and sewage disposal in metropolitan areas. Page: 39
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Chapter 4
METROPOLITAN APPROACHES TO THE WATER PROBLEM
The Case for Comprehensive Water and Sewage Development
Most postwar studies of urban water supply and waste disposal
have underscored the failure to achieve efficient and economical
planning, development and operation on a metropolitan basis. The
economic benefits to be derived from areawide utility planning and
development, and the fact that political boundaries bisect watersheds
and drainage basins, are powerful arguments for structural
change in those metropolitan areas where water responsibilities are
fragmented, investment is inadequate, suburban development is
hampered by the shortcomings of individual systems, and intergovernmental
relations strained by the drawbacks of the contract
system.
For the general public, economies of scale are probably
the most appealing arguments for metropolitan approaches to the
provision of water and waste disposal service. Per capita
investment for a sewage treatment plant to serve half a million
people is 75 percent that of a facility serving 50,000. There are
also considerable savings in per capita operating costs with larger
facilities. For example, it costs an average of $8.00 per million
gallons to provide primary sewage treatment with a 100,000,000
gallon capacity treatment plant. For a 10,000,000 gallon capacity
plant the comparable cost is $23.000. And costs are $58.00 for
a 1,000,000 gallon capacity facility.
Of course, economies of scale can be achieved on a less than
metropolitan basis. A recent study estimated that separate treatment
plants for each community in the suburbanized portion of Suffolk
county in the New York metropolitan area would cost $19,600,000,
with annual operating and maintenance charges of $892,000. Economies
of scale would result if the plants were constructed on a town-wide
basis, since total construction outlays would be $13,000,000 and
annual operation and maintenance costs $562,000. More comprehensive
facilities, on an intertown but still subregional basis, would afford
even greater economies. In this case capital investment would require
$10,400,000 and annual operation and maintenance $466,000. 33/ In the
33/ New York, Executive Department, Office for Local Government,
Study of Needs for Sewage Works (February 16, 1962), p. 24.39 -
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United States. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. Intergovernmental responsibilities for water supply and sewage disposal in metropolitan areas., book, October 1962; Washington, D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1424/m1/51/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.