Geneva plans water, sewer cost increases

Customers in Geneva will pay more for water and sewer service starting Dec. 1 if the city council approves a consultant's recommendation.

A household that uses the average amount of water - about 700 cubic feet per month - would see the combined bill rise from a current $58 per month to $63; by 2020, it would be $71 a month.

Aldermen gave tentative approval to the rate plan Monday night at a committee meeting.

Included in the plan is a new fixed fee for infrastructure replacement, starting at $3 per month and rising to $10 a month, for a customer with a three-quarters-inch service line, the most common residential size.

The infrastructure fee would be used to step up the rate at which the city replaces water mains and sewer pipes. The city anticipates spending at least $12 million on work soon to bring the sanitary sewage treatment plant into compliance with new, stricter Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Just like in 2011, when it last adopted a multiyear plan to increase rates, the consultant recommended the city devote more money to fixing and replacing infrastructure.

And more of the money coming into the water and sewer utility funds should come from fixed monthly customer charges, said consultant David Hyder, vice president of Burton and Associates.

He said the bond rating agency Fitch has recently recommended that utilities that want a AAA bond rating attain at least 30 percent of their revenue from the fixed charge.

Hyder said that nationwide, the cost of water has increased an average of 6 percent a year over the last 10 years.

He also said Geneva should expect water use to continue to drop by about a half-percent per year, as water-conservation efforts continue.

The new Geneva fixed charge would still be lower than that of St. Charles and South Elgin, and higher than Batavia's, which is contemplating rate increases. The fixed charge for South Elgin is $41 a month, according to Hyder's report.

"The rate that we have here is competitive, but our product is far superior," Alderman Jim Radecki said. He had previously served on the council in the early 2000s, when the city was figuring out whether to build a new water treatment plant. It ultimately built one that uses reverse osmosis treatment to soften the water, meaning water users don't have to use water softening salt in their homes.