Columbia’s long-term water program includes a $75 million state loan and a proposed $315 million federal loan. Rates may increase as much as 20% annually for five years — a phrase that can obscure how quickly repeated increases compound.
By The Redemption Project Newsroom
Utilities / Follow the Dollar / Systems Explained
COLUMBIA, Tenn. — Columbia is building one of Tennessee’s largest local water projects, a roughly $520 million plan intended to expand supply and treatment capacity for a fast-growing part of Middle Tennessee.
The financing is beginning to come into view.
The full ratepayer bill is not.
Tennessee recently approved a $75 million Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan to Columbia with a 30-year term and 3.06% interest. Columbia Power & Water Systems also says it is pursuing approximately $315 million through the federal Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, commonly called WIFIA.
Together, those two stated borrowing sources total about $390 million.
That leaves roughly $130 million of a $520 million program to be covered through some combination of other financing, system equity, developer charges, grants, interim debt, revised scope or other sources.
Ratepayers need to see that complete stack.
