Carbon County prison officials say the prison is using more water than they realized.

Last week, the county prison board discussed the sewage rates being charged at the Broad Mountain prison in Nesquehoning. Currently, the county pays $4,620 for 44 EDUs per quarter, which equates to 880,000 gallons of wastewater going into Nesquehoning’s sewer system from the jail. One EDU equates to 20,000 gallons of water.But Warden Timothy Fritz said that the prison is using more than the allotted amount, which is resulting in overage payments per quarter. This is a result of an average daily inmate population of 223 with additional staffing using the water system.“This past year, the first quarter we had to pay an additional $4,500,” Fritz said. “The second quarter was $3,900, and now $5,100 extra. With the population, we’re using a lot more water and we should look into something with Nesquehoning possibly to see what we can do here.“Charlie (Neff, maintenance director), sometimes comes to me and says we used 18,000 to 20,000 gallons of water a night so we’re sometimes using 14,000 to 20,000 gallons a day,” Fritz said.Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said that he thought the bill was based on the water consumption from the well.He asked if it would be cheaper or easier to track the actual usage instead of a percentage.Robert Crampsie, county controller, said that the bill is based on a percentage of wastewater.In 2008, the prison purchased six additional EDUs after the same issue rose and an analysis showed it would help, but as inmate populations rose, so did the water consumption.He said that he spoke with his accountant, who will do an analysis to see where the prison is at, whether it would be feasible to purchase additional EDUs, and if it is, what is the most reasonable amount.President Judge Roger Nanovic said that the first thing the county should do is look at the borough’s ordinance to see what options are available.Sheriff Anthony Harvilla, president of the prison board, said that in a residential area, most of the water is consumed in showering, dishwashing and other activities, and asked if the prison is using the water in much the same way, or if there were other uses where water isn’t going into the sewer system that they may be getting charged for.The prison board said that they will be looking at water consumption, the options available to the prison based on Nesquehoning’s ordinance and see where they plan to go from here to try to stop money from going down the drain.In other matters, Fritz said that the prison was at full capacity at 223 last Wednesday, but noted that the population had been down to about 213 in recent weeks.“I would like to see it move down to around 200 or less for a while,” he said, adding that the adult probation department has been looking at a few things with the zero-tolerance policy and the restrictive intermediate punishment program to see if things can help alleviate some of the congestion.He added that he spoke with the Department of Corrections, which will be coming in to meet with him to discuss the staffing issues Carbon County has with regards to understanding and high amounts of overtime.