NEWPORT – Water district trustees were in the hot seat Thursday night, justifying water quality and a proposed 18.6 percent rate hike, the first increase in five years.

With only 600 customers, district users are absorbing increased maintenance and labor costs along with an expensive search for alternative water sources.

“We had a single water main break last February that cost $25,000 to repair,” Superintendent Thomas Todd told Newport and Palmyra selectmen, along with a handful of water users at a public hearing on the rate increase.

“It gets very expensive, very quickly,” Todd said. “I used to pay $1.65 per foot for copper. Now it’s almost $9.”

The 18.6 percent hike being requested represents $95,087 that the district needs to raise. It would mean an increase in just over $16 in the quarterly water bill for an average family of four that currently pays about $87.

Todd said that compared to all Maine water districts, Newport’s are average. He said Bangor’s water rates are lower and Brewer’s are higher.

But the harsh reality is that because the district is being forced by federal regulations to find an alternate water source, rates will increase again within two to three years.

The district is currently under a consent order because its water source is Nokomis Pond and the federal government has enacted stricter disinfecting rules.

This means the district will either have to locate a new water source or install a new, more intense filtration system than it currently is using.

“In America, we should have safe drinking water,” Todd said. “But the reality is that this district of just 600 customers can’t afford this regulation.”

Todd explained that he has been unable to find water in Newport that is of the quantity and quality that the district requires.

He explained that water was found six miles out of town but that the regulations and cost to tap into it – about $1 million per mile – would make the option unacceptable.

The district has even sent divers into Nokomis Pond to locate the springs feeding it. “They found two locations, about 50 feet apart, with bubbles, but we don’t know if those are oxygen or not,” Todd said.

If they are oxygen, the district would like to look at the option of piping directly into the spring to increase water quality.

“But the time frame we are under won’t allow it,” Todd said. The consent agreement requires that a new source be found or a new filtration system be in place by 2008 or 2009.

Several residents questioned the quality of the water and asked if the rate hike would guarantee better water. Todd said no. “I see the color of your water,” he said. “There are times it looks like tea. I can promise you that even without the consent order, this board would try to improve the water quality.”

NWD trustee George Phelps said the biggest challenge was looking ahead and trying to determine what level of testing the federal government would require in the future.

“We must deal with today’s technology,” he said, “and we have narrowed the possibility to three types [of filtration systems].” A new system could cost between $1 million and $3 million dollars.

Steve Levy, executive director of Maine Rural Water Association and the moderator of the hearing, explained that the best case scenario is that the new system would make the next rate increase smaller than the one currently being asked for.

Al Worden, chairman of the Newport Board of Selectmen, pointed out that the rate hike could mean $38,000 more in hydrant rental fees for the town.

He said that with LD 1 and the cap it places on town budgets, Newport will be forced to cut something out of its budget if the water rate increase goes through.

“We are already at the bottom,” Worden said. “We don’t pad our budget, so we have nothing to play with.”

Following Thursday’s public hearing, the rate hike request now goes to the Maine Public Utilities Commission for ratification.