INSIDE

Expect a water rate increase

A newly completed rate survey will change how Point Roberts residents pay for their water, and how much they pay for it.

“For 95 percent of our customers this will only be a modest increase,” said water commissioner Madeleine Anderson at the regular February 9 meeting of water district 4. Fellow commissioner Renee Coe said the district had to address rising water costs and a stronger Canadian dollar. The rate hike will also pay for an ambitious capital improvement plan to replace miles of aging water main that have this year led to 18 main breaks and costly repairs to roads and property.

Overall the option preferred by commissioners from the rate study developed by certified public accountant Barbara Shosten of FCS Group is for a phased increase that will boost the base rate for 500 hundred cubic feet (ccf) 162 percent by 2012.

If commissioners adopt the change the base rate will go from $19 a month for 600 ccf to $20.14. “That was kind of a winter average throughout the system,” said district manager Dan Bourks when asked how the base volume was selected.

As water usage goes up above the base allowance, ratepayers today are charged $1 per additional hundred cubic feet of water. The new rate would start ramping up the cost as water usage increased: $1 per ccf from 600 to 1,400 ccf, $1.35 per ccf from 1,500 to 4,000 ccf and $2.40 per ccf above 4,000. “Not that many people use more than that but if you do you’re going to start paying,” Bourks said. The rate study predicts that the average home will see an initial increase in their annual water bill of six to 14 percent, but a high end residential user’s bill could shoot up 86 percent.

Commercial users will see increases, from five to 83 percent depending on the size of the connection and volume used. “The residential users have been kind of subsidizing the commercial and they need more capacity, hydrants, fireflow,” Bourks said. The interruptible golf course irrigation account will see a 33 percent hike.

“There are more increases to come,” Bourks said. And ratepayers should expect 20-25 percent hikes for the next few years and then nine percent annually until 2012. “We just haven’t been funding our depreciation appropriately,” Bourks said. “We want to have over a million in the bank by 2012 because we need to start replacing the mains.”

The cost of a new water supply is not included in rates but will be covered by the general facility fee, which could increase from $1,500 to anywhere from $2,130 with no new source of supply to $17,000 if the district needs to spend millions building a reverse osmosis plant. A final report from Shosten expected next month, will make recommendations on the general facility fee.

“When a resolution is ready and we have a final report we can call a public meeting and take action,” Anderson said.