Forsyth County's water future became murky Tuesday when county commissioners refused to accept the latest prices offered by the city of Cumming.
They also refused to pass a counteroffer.
The four voting members of the County Commission agreed to meet again Wednesday morning to hammer out a new proposal before the May 26 deadline. If no agreement is reached by then, the city can set its own price to supply the county's 47,000 customers.
The major sticking point Tuesday was $11.4 million that Cumming would charge the county for upgrades to the city's water intake facility at Lake Lanier. The figure represents the county's share, 65 percent, of the water drawn at the plant.
Two commissioners, Todd Levent and County Chairman Jim Boff, said they would not consider paying the city without receiving partial ownership of the facility. Two others, Brian Tam and Patrick Bell, brought a counteroffer they said would save the county about $1.2 million a year from its current contract with the city. It will take three votes to accept any offer from the city or to make a counteroffer.
The county's fifth commissioner, Pete Amos, operates a water distribution business and has recused himself from the negotiations.
Forsyth has tried and failed for years to get a permit to draw water from Lake Lanier or from the Chattahoochee River downstream. For now, Cumming, which has a permit, is the county's only practical option for water.
Tam and Bell's proposal calls for increasing the county's rate for raw water over the next 12 years from 10 cents per 1,000 gallons to 45 cents. The rate would extend back 18 months to September 2010, when the city's new intake facility went on line.
Tam said the rate he and Bell are proposing includes a built-in payment on the $11.4 million for the intake plant.
But Levent said there is no guarantee the city would drop the rate once the intake plant was paid off.
He pressed again for partial ownership.
"Ownership is not in the cards," Bell said.
Last month, commissioners offered to buy treated water from the city at $2.25 per 1,000 gallons and proposed a 50-year deal for raw water at its current rate. The proposal also included $11.4 million for partial ownership of the intake plant.
Cumming's City Council rejected that offer Monday and proposed that the county pay less for treated water but five times more for raw water.
That proposal would cost the county about $100,000 more in annual rates and still leave it on the hook for the upgrades to the intake facility with no ownership stake.
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