A Carbon County official says it is time to look at water authorities in lieu of tax rates that he says are too low.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners approved the distribution of $20,357.59 from the city of Bethlehem to two school districts, the county and three townships as payment on property owned by the Bethlehem Water Authority.

Jim Thorpe School District will receive $8,528.30; Palmerton School District, $5,046.86; Penn Forest Township, $355.34; Towamensing Township, $304.29; Lower Towamensing Township, $4.70; and Carbon County, $6,118.10.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that various water authorities own thousands of acres and their payments are too low because they haven’t been increased in years.

“We all know the struggles we have here in Carbon County and the revenue from real estate taxes,” he said. “To me, this is an extremely small amount of money for the amount of property that is taken off the tax rolls of Carbon County to supply another county with water.”

Nothstein says it is time for the county, as well as municipalities and school districts, to take a look at being properly compensated for water usage from Carbon County.

“We need to take a good strong look at that and see what we can do to get that increased,” he said, adding that the counties and municipalities don’t get any of the profits the authorities make off the water or off timbering the land.