City and county voters will consider the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District’s $945 million bond issue when they go to the polls Tuesday, June 5.

MSD rates will increase nearly 127 percent by July 1, 2015, if the bond issue, Proposition Y, is not approved by voters.

The bond issue, which would 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 MSD Manager of Public Information Lance LeComb.

Voters really don’t have much choice — they’re darned if they do and darned if they don’t.

No matter how they vote, MSD rates are going to increase.

MSD officials have had roughly 40 years — since the federal Clean Water Act was amended in 1972 — to address the overflow issues.

Perhaps longtime MSD critic Tom Sullivan put it best when he recently said, “… “Well, what have they been doing for the past 40 years? And the answer is they’ve been duncing around …”

Sullivan, who said he is not working against Prop Y, wants to provide voters a different perspective on the issue. His perspective is valuable as Sullivan most likely has attended more MSD board meetings than any current trustee or employee.

“… The first thing to understand about this is that the situation at MSD was caused entirely by them …,” he said.

The sewer overflows resulted in the district being sued in June 2007 by the federal government on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency 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 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 and formally approved April 27, the MSD will pay an estimated $4.7 billion over 23 years to eliminate illegal overflows of untreated raw sewage, including basement backups, to reduce pollution levels in urban rivers and streams.

Unfortunately, that $4.7 billion will be funded predominately by MSD ratepayers as the district will receive little or no state or federal money to help fund the mandated improvements. As a result, rates will continue to increase.

We certainly don’t disagree with Sullivan’s characterization that the district’s failure to address the overflow issues is a result of its “duncing around” the past 40 years. Yet it’s hard to blame people who are no longer on the MSD Board of Trustees or in the district’s employ.

Just like the Metro transit agency, the primary problem with the MSD Board of Trustees is its inherent lack of accountability with those who foot the bill — ratepayers.

MSD trustees are appointed by the St. Louis mayor and the county executive. As such, no mechanism exists for ratepayers to hold them accountable or remove them from office.

The bottom line is the district’s failure to fully adhere to the provisions of the amended Clean Water Act is going to cost ratepayers an enormous amount of money during a difficult economic period.

When voters go to the polls next Tuesday, the choice is simple: A “yes” votes means MSD rates will increase 52 percent by July 1, 2015, and a “no” vote means MSD rates will increase by nearly 127 percent by July 1, 2015.

Both choices stink. We urge voters to hold their nose and vote “yes” on Prop Y.

Besides the $945 million bond issue, voters next Tuesday will consider eight amendments to the MSD Charter.

We urge voters to approve Propositions 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8. We urge voters to reject Propositions 4 and 6 as we do not consider either proposal to be good public policy.