To the Editor:
Isn’t that how it goes in Portsmouth? In 2023 I see the City continued its 30-year-old corporate welfare program for its pals at the PDA Golf Course by supplying them with 15 million gallons of free water. The questionable details of this deal can be found in the links below where the reader will note this freebie went from 9 million gallons in in 1993 to 15 million gallons in 1998.
Wonder why the 66% bump? The oblivious saps on the Portsmouth water system are left to pick up the PDA’s water tab, which in 2022 came to came to $254,900.00.
But wait, there’s more.
When the PDA exceeds its 15-million-gallon handout, Portsmouth bills the extra water using the residential water rate ($5.70 / 748 gallons) rather than the applicable irrigation rate ($13.28 / 748 gallons). With this bonus feature, in 2022 when the golf course used 20,439,000 gallons, the PDA was able to pocket an additional $52,700.00.
Municipal-WWDisposalServicesAgr.pdf (cityofportsmouth.com) page 11
Municipal-Amd1toWWDisposalandWaterServiceAgr.pdf (cityofportsmouth.com) page 5
So, Portsmouth water system customers, next time you’re on water restrictions and being environmentally responsible watching your lawn turn brown, know that City Hall’s pauper friends out on the PDA links have their spigots wide open keeping every blade of grass just the right shade of Dartmouth green.
James A. Hewitt
Portsmouth, NH
