Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District rates will increase nearly 127 percent by July 1, 2015, if a $945 million bond issue is not approved by voters Tuesday, June 5.

The bond issue, which will provide funding to address sewer overflow issues across the district’s service area, will ease that increase, making it a 52-percent increase by July 1, 2015, according to information provided by MSD.

But MSD Manager of Public Information Lance LeComb said the work will have to be done regardless of whether the bond issue, Proposition Y, is approved.

“You have to do the work no matter what,” LeComb told the Call. “It’s not a matter of if the work gets done or not. This work is per (the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and the federal government … (There are) mandates that this work be completed within a 23-year time frame …”

The MSD was sued in June 2007 by the federal government on behalf of the EPA and the state of Missouri on behalf of the Department of Natural Resources.

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment Foundation later intervened under the citizen suit provisions of the federal Clean Water Act.

In the lawsuit, among other things, the United States alleged that on at least 7,000 occasions between 2001 and 2005, failures in MSD’s sewer system resulted in overflows of raw sewage into residential homes, yards, public parks, streets and playground areas.

Under a settlement announced last August, the MSD will pay an estimated $4.7 billion over 23 years to eliminate illegal overflows of untreated raw sewage, including basement backups and to reduce pollution levels in urban rivers and streams. LeComb said when the district first was sued, the cost estimate for the project was “up around $6 billion.”

Historically, the district’s rates have been less than the national average.

“In comparison nationally, (our cost is) very favorable,” he said, “but we do recognize this is going to be money coming out of St. Louisans’ pockets, our ratepayers’ pockets, and those are going to be dollars that aren’t available for other uses, especially in today’s economy.”

But the June 5 vote will determine how much rates will increase, LeComb said.

“If we choose the route of bonds, the average rate goes up from $28.73 per month right now to the low 40s, about $42, $43 a month, and that’s gradually over four years,” he said.

However, that does not preclude future rate increases.

“We’ve been very public for the last eight to 10 years saying that by the end of this decade, early 2020s, rates will be probably over $80 a month,” LeComb said, “and that’s very average when compared to the rest of the country.”

If voters approve the bond issue, rates in the next four years would be lower, but interest costs also are associated with the bond issue, according to LeComb.

“Interest is something that doesn’t pay for a project, doesn’t pay for construction of the ground, but many folks probably can’t afford the other side of the coin,” the MSD spokesman said.

The other side of the coin — not approving the bond issue — calls for a 123.3-percent rate increase by July 1 and a total rate increase of 126.8-percent over four years.

Prop Y would fund the district’s capital program to meet federal Clean Water Act requirements, according to LeComb, who said overflow issues are occurring “throughout the entire area” and would “look like a shotgun blast” on a map.

The MSD’s capital project expenditures from July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2016, are expected to be $935.7 million.

Tom Sullivan, a longtime MSD critic, said his problem with the bond issue is the amount of money and MSD’s accountability.

“Giving money to MSD and providing for clean water are not one and the same thing,” Sullivan told the Call.

One of the bond issue’s “selling points,” according to Sullivan, is that it will save money, but he said “you’re paying almost $2 for every $1” through a bond issue.

“What MSD is saying is that it’s going to keep rates down,” Sullivan said. “I don’t necessarily believe that … There’s nothing that says you have to have all the construction through a bond issue.”

Bob Baer, chairman of Clean Water STL, which is promoting the passage of Prop Y, and former MSD board member who also served as president and CEO of the Metro transit agency, looked at MSD’s accountability differently.

“I think MSD’s track record of delivering on what they committed before the vote is excellent,” Baer told the Call, “and I think if you go in and look, they’ve done exactly what they said they would do …”

The MSD Board of Trustees voted in January to place Prop Y on the ballot.

Trustees considered placing the bond issue before voters earlier, but the settlement of the lawsuit was not formally approved until April 27.

LeComb said he encourages residents to “get out and vote.”

“(These are) very important questions talking about financial commitment for generations to come … (and a) wastewater system that was going to serve the community, sustain the community for several decades to come …,” he said.

LeComb and Sullivan both said they are not aware of any organized opposition to the bond issue.

Approval of the bond issue requires a simple majority of voters districtwide.