Rate increases were approved Thursday that will take the average customer’s Regional Water Resource Agency bill from roughly $45 to $70 per month over the next several years. A portion of the increase will go toward improvement projects, and those charges would go away once the bond is paid off.
After a 30-day period with no formal public comments, the RWRA board approved the rate increase proposals last week. On Thursday, final approval was given by the RWRA Rate Review Board, which is made up of the mayor and all city commissioners along with the judge-executive and all county commissioners.
Multiple increases were approved, all unanimously.
The first rate, called the Facilities/Compliance Plan (FCP) rate, is new and helps pay for required upgrades to RWRA’s two wastewater treatment plants.
“Currently the plants are out of compliance and they’re running at 120% capacity right now,” according to RWRA Executive Director Joe Schepers. “These rates will upgrade the plants to bring us back into compliance and allow us to start bringing more load to the plants.”
For the average customer, which uses a 1-inch meter, the FCP rate will be $9.98 per month. Additional fees will be added per gallon for transported waste. (The full breakdown of the FCP rate based on meter size and additional fees can be found in a chart at the bottom of this story.)
The FCP rate will go into effect on July 1, 2023. It includes a sunset clause declaring that the rate will expire upon the retirement of the debt service. The rate review board gave authority to RWRA to borrow up to $75 million for the Facilities/Compliance Plan project. Officials expect that to be bonded over 20 years, but it could be paid off early depending on future growth.
A second rate increase includes incremental hikes to the customer service charge. Schepers said that money goes to the general fund to pay for daily operations and purchases such as trucks, gas, and chemicals.
For the average customer, the current rate is $18.45 per month. After no increase in 2023, that rate will jump $4 per month in July 2024, $3 in 2025, $3 in 2026, and $2 in 2027 — meaning that the average customer will pay $30.45 starting July 1, 2027. (The full breakdown of the customer service charge based on meter size can be found in a chart at the bottom of this story.)
A final additional increase will come in the wastewater user charge, where the average customer currently pays $4.39 per 1,000 gallons. That rate will increase by 30 cents in 2024, 20 cents in 2025, 10 cents in 2026, and 10 cents in 2027 — meaning a $5.09 monthly charge after all increases.
According to RWRA, with the approved rate increases, the average customer’s total bill would rise from the current charge of $44.69 to:
- $54.67 in July 2023
- $59.75 in July 2024
- $63.46 in July 2025
- $66.82 in July 2026
- $69.18 in July 2027
RWRA officials said there will be no increases to the environmental improvement fee, quality surcharge, capacity fee, or system development fee through 2027. (The chart reflecting those rates remaining constant can be found in a chart at the bottom of this story.)
