By Hilary Judd

MILLVILLE -- Concerns over water conservation--and resulting increased rates--aren't major threats to Millville yet, said City Maintenance Director Gary Larsen, crediting the luxury to planning and system improvements.

"I'm not so sure that I, maybe, put the cart ahead of the horse here," Larsen said, reporting his recent research on the city's water levels Thursday night.

"We're in excellent shape. We've spent a lot of money and planning to get in this position, and I recommend that we just bask in the position that we're at."

When city water levels dropped last fall, Larsen and the council discussed the possible effectiveness of increasing the city's rate charged per gallon during a shortage, in an attempt to encourage the community to conserve water. Larsen looked into a possible resolution--involving increased rates, directly proportional to the amount of water a household uses--during drought conditions.

The current basking situation Larsen suggested consists of city water levels that don't necessarily worry him at this point.

"Our water tables are within a foot of where they were last year at this time," Larsen said. Those same levels did take a dive last fall, but they've recovered from where they were then, he said.

Seven years ago, Millville implemented a million-gallon storage tank and a new treatment system into its existing operation, said City Treasurer Tara Hobbs, which added "a lot bigger capability" and functionality to the system.

In the past year, the city focused on inspecting, cleaning and improving the system wherever necessary, Hobbs said. The park pump is being upgraded right now, which allows increased flow and capability as well, she said, and agrees that the system "is in good shape.

"[Larsen] feels like we could do about double the production we're doing now," Hobbs said. "We could add another 300 to 400 houses and be just fine."

Millville's average monthly water use per household during the winter is about 8,800 gallons, Larsen said. In the summer, that number jumps to around 54,800 gallons per residence. With the city's newly improved system, production capacity can go up to approximately 105,000 gallons per household in the summer.

"This puts us at 52 percent of [production] capacity," Larsen said, referring to the statistics he'd determined.

Mayor Gale Hall said he spoke with a resident recently who had heard about the resolution discussion and was now concerned about water shortage.

But Larsen said his findings don't agree with such an assumption, and creating an emergency conservation water rate adjustment at this point may confuse more people, as it had this resident.

"So you don't feel the need to even have something in place, then?" Hall asked.

"No, I think we'll just confuse people," Larsen said. "They're going to maybe misinterpret what we're trying to do here."

The council agreed that "basking at this point" appeared to be the best solution.

"If we have an emergency situation that comes up, we'll deal with it on a singular case basis," Larsen said. "I don't see us having any water problems at all this summer."

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