Philadelphia water bills could jump to $97 a month for a typical household

Home water bills in Philadelphia could jump over the next two years if the Philadelphia Water Department s latest rate request is approved The department has proposed changes that would hike the bill for the typical residential customer to about per month this September and then to a year later The current typical bill is a little shy of That would add about more per year for a typical or median customer who uses cubic feet of water a month If approved in its current form the change would represent the biggest percentage increase in water bills in at least a decade By the end of the typical bill would be higher than it was in The city s independent Rate Board is reviewing arguments from the Populace Advocate who represents the interests of customers and is arguing for a smaller increase The board will make a decision on the new rates in late July and could end up lowering the hike a bit as it has in past years However whatever the board decides a multitude of residents will have little choice but to accept that they ll be paying much more for water and sewer services in the coming years announced Robert Ballenger a Society Legal Services attorney who serves as the Inhabitants Advocate Unfortunately the costs of running the utility and managing all of the investments that need to be made to make sure that we are able to benefit from safe drinking water and have the environmental benefits of clean water in the city of Philadelphia are getting more and more expensive he stated Water costs are rising nationally The Water Department says it requirements to raise the rates that pay for water sewers and stormwater management so it can cover the increasing costs of its operations and ensure its financial stability When it broadcasted the rate request in February the agency cited the rising costs of labor materials equipment laboratory services regulatory obligations and capital projects What s really driving rates higher in a lot of places and this is certainly true in Philadelphia is the need for infrastructure venture the need to repair aging infrastructure and to comply with EPA decrees that require the city to manage and reduce the impact of wet weather which causes our old system to overflow Ballenger reported Following Hurricana Ida in September a flood of dirty water filled the Vine Street Expressway and soaked basements in selected neighborhoods A car is swamped at Park Towne Place apartments off nd Street near the expressway Emma Lee WHYY Across the country the combined water and sewer bill for a typical U S household rose from to and it s up since according to Bluefield Research a Boston firm that provides information to water utilities and other companies The Northeast which has older utility systems that require more expensive upgrades had the highest regional costs with bills averaging nearly a month per Bluefield In the South the regional average was We are working to reduce operating costs as much as doable PWD Commissioner Randy Hayman disclosed We are limiting budget requests reducing stormwater management grants refinancing debt and obtaining low-cost loans and grants from PENNVEST the state s infrastructure fund and other sources The Water Department s budget is million this year and is proposed to increase to million in the fiscal year that starts in July A small change makes a big difference The Rate Board is considering a number of often highly technical questions as it weighs how much of an increase to allow They largely fall into two buckets how much money the Water Department will need to operate over the next limited years and how actual charges should be set and divided up among different groups of customers One of the various calculations in the first category tries to predict how much the department s costs will increase in the future due to inflation PWD proposes using a well-known tool for estimating prices the consumer price index CPI An expert working for the Society Advocate says a different tool the personal consumption expenditures price index PCE predicts inflation more reliably for certain costs and as it happens will produce lower results The Water Department projection is that the costs are going to go up by a little more than Ours is that they re going to go up by a little more than Ballenger announced Not a huge difference but the way that translates when you re talking about millions of dollars in costs is pretty pivotal Fairmount Parks Water Works on the Schuylkill River once served as a drinking water source for the city File photo Credit Mark Henninger Imagic Digital Another example is the way future changes in water usage are estimated Households use less water than they used to thanks to the gradual replacement of fixtures like toilets and showerheads with more efficient versions Ballenger recalled that years ago the Water Department s typical customer used cubic feet per month whereas the figure is now CFs When it projects future declines in usage which will affect how much it earns from providing water the department wants to use a three-year compound rise rate he stated Meanwhile the Citizens Advocate s expert disclosed an average enhancement rate is more accurate and should be used in the water rate calculations In general Ballenger commented the Water Department is very focused on making sure it has enough funding to cover all its costs which promotes more conservative assumptions than really are appropriate The Populace Advocate is more focused on helping consumers in part by making sure projections aren t unnecessarily high Homeowners vs big water users The other part of the rate occurrence is concerned with how billing works including how water charges are divided up among residential and small business customers on one hand and big commercial customers on the other That s more complicated than it might seem because it s not just based on how much water flows through each user s pipes It s also influenced by factors like the maximum amount different customers need at different times which determines how big a pipe is needed how much pumping maximum is available and other infrastructure questions The General Advocate argues that the rate allocation the Water Department wants to continue using has been overcharging homeowners What we re saying is the profile that has been used in determining rates and charges in the past has not reflected what we now know to be the demands of the residential and small commercial customers Ballenger revealed The newest details suggests that the maximum ceiling costs for those users should be allocated differently he commented That would outcome in home users seeing a roughly increase in water costs rather than the in the present proposed and big commercial customers bearing a larger portion of those costs That doesn t include sewer charges Ballenger noted that another entity the Philadelphia Large Users Group will also provide testimony as part of the rate development He expects they will argue that the current rate allocation be maintained which would prevent their members from seeing the higher charges the Inhabitants Advocate is arguing for The Rate Board will also review the structure of the Water Department s Tiered Assistance Undertaking TAP It provides eligible low-income customers with a reduced fixed monthly bill based on their income as well as forgiveness of past-due bills protection from shutoffs leak repairs and other services A strategy for more federal funding Ballenger mentioned he s also trying to get the Water Department to commit itself to an initiative that he believes could yield more federal help for infrastructure improvements and potentially blunt future rate hikes The federal executive already provides states with funding for water utilities which the department accesses through low-cost loans and pays back with interest For disadvantaged communities additional subsidies are also available that function like grants rather than loans further reducing their utilities financing costs Philadelphia isn t eligible because despite its essential levels of poverty residents average wealth is still too high Ballenger reported In summer the Philadelphia Water Department set up a Philly Water Bar at City Hall to advertise the high quality of its product Kimberly Paynter WHYY But the Masses Advocate squad believes that language in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law could in the future let PWD qualify for the subsidies if the money goes directly to help low-income customers The department could potentially make itself eligible by setting up a operation to help those customers finance water-saving measure and repairs Ballenger announced We re trying to position the city to better get federal dollars to avoid the long-term impact of these investments he declared That s really an significant step for us to take because the long-term dollars associated with the capital programs and what that would ultimately cost customers is pretty staggering The search for more federal funding coincides with moves by the Trump administration to reduce assistance for certain big infrastructure projects Last month the Federal Emergency Management Agency disclosed it s ending a resilience initiative that had been expected to send Philly million to reduce overflows in Northern Liberties and nearby neighborhoods During storms overflows can send raw sewage into rivers and basements The Rate Board has already held a number of populace hearings on the Water Department s rate request and has more scheduled this month The board plans to make a final decision on July and the first set of new rates will go into effect September The post Philadelphia water bills could jump to a month for a typical household appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY