BY MARK SCHUMANN

Newspaper headlines screaming, “Three out of four want to switch to county for water,” don’t begin to tell the whole story.

True, seventy-four percent of respondents to a county survey of city water and sewer customers located outside the city limits indicated they would prefer to be served by the county.  However, over half of the 3,379 mail surveys were never returned.

None of the reports on the county’s survey clarify widespread misinformation around city water and sewer rates.  Reading the reports, one could easily get the false impression the county’s rates are lower than the city’s.  That is simply not so.

The city charges low volume users a higher rate, but the county chargers a steeper rate for high volume users.  On the whole, the two rate structures are revenue neutral.

However, this isn’t what south barrier island residents were led to believe, when just ahead of the county survey, they received a flyer from the south beach property owners association claiming the city’s rates are 30 percent higher than the county’s.  That, of course, it not true.

Respondents to the county’s “straw poll” were also not told of the city’s offer to charge them exactly the same rates they would pay as customers of the county.

Further, respondents to the county’s survey were not told it would cost the county some $10 million or more to acquire the city’s utility infrastructure and to bore under the Indian River Lagoon to connect the county’s mainland system to the south barrier island.

A more forthright questionnaire might have read:  “Knowing that the city is willing to charge you county rates, and given that it would require a public investment of $10 million or more for the county to serve the south barrier island, would you prefer to be served by the city or the county?