HOWELL — Why do sewer utility customers in Howell who get wastewater treatment services from the Manasquan River Regional Sewerage Authority (MRRSA) pay more in quarterly sewer fees than neighboring municipalities?

That is a question Howell officials want answered before they move ahead with an amended ordinance that would raise sewer rates by $6.50 per quarter, or $26 per year.

Township Council members and Mayor Robert F. Walsh voted 5-0 at the Feb. 16 meeting to carry the ordinance to the March 16 council meeting.

“I am getting really aggravated with this conversation,” Councilman William Gotto said. “I don’t even know who to criticize about the fact that we don’t all pay the same. I don’t understand it.”

The issue of the MRRSA rates and this year’s proposed rate increase has been a topic of discussion by the council over the past month.

The MRRSA, an independent authority that collects wastewater from customers in Howell, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Farmingdale and Wall Township and pumps it to the Ocean County Utilities Authority (OCUA) for treatment, asked all member towns for a rate increase in 2010.

Council members and Walsh voted to introduce the amended ordinance at the Feb. 2 meeting.

But resident Daniel Ritter, who is a former councilman, asked the governing body to delay or kill the ordinance at the Feb. 16 council meeting.

“What I find very disturbing is the lack of knowing,” Ritter said. “You are talking about a rate that will affect 6,000 of your ratepayers.”

Ritter also questioned what had happened to $750,000 that former governing body members allowed to be transferred out of the Howell sewer utility’s surplus fund and placed in the township’s general fund in 2003.

“It is incumbent upon the council to justify that these funds have come back to ratepayers before trying to generate a rate increase,” he said. “It is incumbent on you to send this ordinance back where it came from.”

Chief Financial Officer Jeffery Filiatreault said $200,000 of the money was already returned to the sewer utility.

None of the governing body members were in office when that transfer took place, Walsh said.

“We had nothing to do with the $750,000 going back to the [township’s] general fund,” he said.

Filiatreault said he was not familiar with the maintenance and operational costs of the other MRRSA municipalities.

Howell has a sewage collection system with 13 pumping stations. The wastewater that is generated by sewer utility customers first goes through Howell lines, then travels through MRRSA lines and eventually hooks into the OCUA for treatment.

Filiatreault said the billing for the rate increase had been slated to go out in March.

“The MRRSA has already sent us the bill,” he said. “I can’t recommend we wait on the rate increase because of the cash flow.”

Ritter said he was also concerned about metered sewer flow.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said. “I would at least ask you to hold off on making a decision.”

Filiatreault told the members of the governing body that they could revise the rates at any time.

“You can revise them next month,” he said. The Howell sewer utility has 5,416 residential users and 322 commercial users. Residents will pay $178.50 per quarter with the rate increase, or $714 per year. Commercial users will pay $188.50 per quarter, or $754 per year, Filiatreault has said.