The Botetourt Board of Supervisors is trying to help 2,300 Aqua Virginia water customers avoid what could be rate increases as high as 40 percent.

To do that, the board is mailing flyers to households and businesses in the Blue Ridge and Cloverdale areas urging residents to show up and speak at one of two public hearings Tuesday, May 15 at 4:30 and 7 p.m. at Lord Botetourt High School.

Supervisors Billy Martin from the Blue Ridge District and Mac Scothorn from the Valley District were joined by County Administrator Gary Larrowe at an open house May 1 to hear concerns Aqua Virginia water customers may be having with the company that has acquired a number of small, private water companies that served subdivisions in those areas.

The open house attracted about 60 residents who asked questions and wondered how they could stop the rate increases that, in some cases, have gone from as little as $4 every other month to almost 10 times that monthly over almost 10 years.

The supervisors and county administrator also urged those at the open house at Read Mountain Middle School to tell their neighbors, friends— essentially anyone who is an Aqua Virginia customer— to attend one of the public hearings to fight the rate increases.

The State Corporation Commission (SCC) is holding rare public hearings outside of Richmond on the Aqua Virginia application for the proposed rate increases. The SCC has to approve rate increases for many utilities like Aqua Virginia.

Another part of Aqua Virginia’s application that bothers the supervisors is a proposal to impose a new water and wastewater infrastructure service charge (WWISC) on its Botetourt residential and business customers.

Besides the proposed base water rate increases, the WWISC would allow the company to place a new surcharge on customers that would not have the same SCC oversight as water rates, and that could result in even a much greater increase in rates. County Attorney Michael Lockaby told the Board of Supervisors earlier this year a WWISC could be a rate as high as 10 percent of the base water rate.

For Martin, the fight against Aqua Virginia water rate increases dates to when he first came on the Board of Supervisors.

He’s attended several SCC hearings over the years in Richmond, including one in April over this proposed rate increase.

He told those at the open house last week that Aqua Virginia has 70,000 customers across Virginia, and other counties that have areas served by the company are also fighting the rate increases.

He said when Aqua Virginia first bought small water companies in Botetourt in 2008 and 2009, in some instances the company doubled rates right away. He said since then, the company has petitioned for rate increases every two years, including once when it asked for a 60 percent rate increase.

“What makes me so angry is the rates are outrageous and unreasonable,” Martin said. “Can anyone tell me anything Aqua Virginia has done the last two years to warrant a rate increase?”

“Not a damn thing,” was the loudest answer from anyone in the audience.

Martin was most disturbed by what he considers pay incentives for Aqua Virginia and its parent company Aqua America executives.

He said Aqua Virginia has increased dividends to stockholders 23 times in the past 26 years.

Scothorn said the CEO’s total compensation has risen from $1.5 million annually in 2014 to more than $3 million in 2016.

“Where does that money come from?” he asked. “From us.”

“We have a lot of elderly, fixed-income and low-income people. Why should they take your money and put a burden on you for financial incentives for them?” Martin asked.

Martin said the recent federal tax reductions for companies was supposed to push down costs to consumers, but he said Aqua Virginia didn’t want to do that. “They want to keep the money,” he said.

He said Aqua Virginia has no capital reserves and no capital improvement plan for the water systems. He said during the SCC hearing in Richmond, the company “tried to fudge some numbers and got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.”

Martin said when the company went from billing every other month to monthly billing it doubled its service charge without SCC approval. That charge was $15 every two months, and it stayed that monthly rather than going to $7.50, he said he told the SCC, and he repeated for the audience last week.

“You’re being overcharged $7.50 a month— $90 a year without SCC approval,” he said, calculating that’s over $1 million among Botetourt customers since the billing cycle change.

Scothorn said the county attorney and Aqua Virginia have reached an agreement with Aqua Virginia officials that would stop what has been the interim rate increase, but it still has to be approved by the SCC judge who will hold the public hearing.

“That’s why we need you at the hearings,” he told the audience.

“We need to have a large force of people at the meetings,” Martin reiterated.

One person at the meeting urged young families who are Aqua Virginia customers to turn out, too. “They’ll be the most affected by this,” he said in a conversation after the meeting, noting they’ll have years they have to pay the rates.