Under a bill that gained passage out of the House A&B Subcom. on Natural Resources and Regulatory Services Monday, the Grand River Dam Authority would be prohibited from raising rates on raw water sales for five years.

In a humorous bow to the controversial tone some water issues have taken this session, Rep. Wade Rousselot briefly explained his HB 2398 as follows: “This bill has to do with water. Any questions?”

The measure would also freeze raw water rates at their July 2007 level.

“Just roll them back to where they were before,” he said.

The lawmaker wants a task force to study GRDA’s authority to control, store and sell water from Grand Lake and its tributaries.

He said he is most concerned about water from Fort Gibson, rates for which affect rural water districts in surrounding areas.

Rousselot, D-Wagoner, said that a few years ago GRDA proposed a 2,500 percent increase raw water rates, mainly for rural water districts. He said that officials with water districs covering Wagoner and Cherokee counties went to the autority to discuss the situation, and were told that GRDA had not increased its water rates for abou 40 years.

The lawmaker said he understands the need for some adjustment, but asked that the increase not be so substantial or undertaken all at once.

Rousselot said that the increase ultimately adopted was about 1,000 percent. The two counties took the issue to court, but lost, he said.

The benefit of the rate hike is minimal to GRDA, but difficult for water districts to shoulder, he said.

“They didn’t need this rate increase at the time,” Rousselot said.

Rousselot tried to gain passage of a similar measure a few years ago.

When the measure came before the Joint Legislative Task Force on the GRDA recently, authority COO Michael Kiefner said GRDA makes only about $200,000 annually from raw water sales, setting its rates at a level sufficient to help pay costs of service for all of its operations.