Second of two parts -- Restrictions on water use, a developer's lawsuit and a 25-percent rate hike are among the issues swirling around the Kent County Water Authority.

09:07 AM EST on Monday, December 5, 2005

BY BENJAMIN N. GEDAN
Journal Staff Writer

A special General Assembly commission has waded into the debate over water in Kent County amid warnings of shortages that could paralyze development in the fast-growing region.

For the past year, the Kent County Water Authority has been at the center of controversy over an array of issues, including a 25-percent rate hike, restrictions on outdoor water use and a lawsuit from an influential developer who claimed that the authority sabotaged his projects on 480 acres along Route 95.

Debate shifted to the State House last month, when a legislative commission held its first meeting and announced a broad inquiry into the authority. The eight-member oversight panel has already heard testimony from Timothy J. Brown, the authority's general manager, and lawmakers plan at least seven more hearings.

Three hearings will be held in the communities where 70,000 residents rely on the nonprofit utility for their tap water. A third of the water sold by the authority supplies commercial and industrial customers, who are also expected to testify.

"People have a lot of questions. They're certainly unhappy with the rate increase," state Rep. Raymond J. Sullivan Jr., D-Coventry, a commission chairman, said. "And a lot of folks are concerned with economic development."

This is not the first time lawmakers have scrutinized the authority, which was created by the General Assembly in 1946. Since 2000, there have been at least 21 bills related to the utility, including an attempt by state Sen. Leo R. Blais, R-Coventry, in 2001, to increase the stipend of authority board members to $10,000, from $3,000.

The next year, then-Sen. Aram G. Garabedian, D-Cranston, tried to expand the board to nine members, from five, by adding representatives from Cranston, Scituate and West Greenwich. Under current law, the town councils in East Greenwich, West Warwick and Coventry each appoint one member, the Warwick City Council appoints another, and the board selects its fifth from the community with the most ratepayers.

But few of the bills have passed, and until this summer legislators had never attempted an in-depth inquiry into the authority, according to state Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis, D-Coventry, who filed the bill creating the oversight commission in June.

The special commission will hold hearings over the next four months. It will later submit a report to the General Assembly and file a raft of legislation that could fundamentally alter the utility, possibly reducing board members' 10-year terms or even dismantling the authority before it marks its 60th anniversary next year.

"This is something that should have been done years ago," Raptakis said. "It was building up from all the problems we've had."

Francis J. Perry, the chairman of the authority's board, has said the hearings offer an opportunity to plead with legislators to help secure new water sources to meet growing demand. The authority has not developed a new well field for decades, Perry said. And at the first hearing, held Wednesday at the State House, Brown told lawmakers that constructing the controversial Big River Reservoir is the "ultimate solution" to water scarcity.

Authority officials also hope the commission will help end its 4 1/2-year-old stalemate with the state Department of Environmental Management over a proposal to expand a well field by Lake Mishnock. Officials from the DEM will testify before the special panel on Dec. 13 in the State House.

"I DON'T SEE IT as a witch hunt," board vice chairman Peter O. Masterson said, noting that officials had offered the commission a friendly bus tour of the water system. "There's nothing to hide. The thing runs well."

The commission could ultimately decide to provide greater resources to the cash-strapped authority, whose 35 employees are headquartered in a century-old former shoelace factory and roller-skating rink and meet in a conference room that seats 12.

But members of the commission say they expect the hearings to attract hordes of critics lambasting the water authority. The authority did not win allies in July when it announced a 25-percent rate hike. And officials further angered ratepayers throughout the summer by aggressively enforcing restrictions on outdoor watering. By mid-August, they had issued nearly 800 warnings and shut off water service to 27 homeowners caught watering lawns on the wrong day.

Local officials are also expected to attack the authority. This is particularly true in Coventry, where commercial growth, which is threatened by a water shortage, is considered the only antidote for residents burdened with the highest tax rate in the state.

Commission members are anticipating a legion of developers criticizing the authority for slowing projects and inflating costs by requiring voluminous engineering reports and multiple public hearings.

Nicholas E. Cambio, who has developed parcels along Route 2 in Warwick, recently sued the authority for imposing restrictions on water use that delayed construction at his Centre of New England project in Coventry and West Greenwich. "It's brutal," Cambio's lawyer, Stephen A. Izzi, said. "They've made it nearly impossible."

The two sides settled the suit in September, but Cambio later insisted he would develop a private water system for the giant retail stores, condominiums and hotels he is developing. "The only reason I got the water is because I sued," he said. "It seems like the only thing people understand is warfare."

Joseph Maraia, a 78-year-old semi-retired developer, says the authority is holding Kent County "hostage." He plans to take that message to the oversight panel before heading to Boca Raton, Fla., for the winter. "I'm pretty well along in years," Maraia said. "But I'm hoping I can get to some of these hearings. There is something wrong with that board."

The commission will hear from advocacy groups and scientists Jan. 11 at the State House, and it has invited officials from the state Public Utilities Commission, Department of Health, and Water Resources Board for a Jan. 25 hearing. Lawmakers will travel to Kent County to hear from ratepayers on Feb. 8, March 1 and March 15, before inviting water authority and DEM officials back to the State House on March 29.

"This commission wants to overhaul the water authority from A to Z," said Raptakis, who suggested the commission might recommend merging the authority with its counterpart in Providence or Warwick. "The communities are growing, and there has to be an ample supply of water."

Benjamin N. Gedan can be reached at bgedan@projo.com