Del City Municipal Services Authority approves package of water, sewer and sanitation rate increases

The Del City Municipal Services Authority on Sept. 23 approved a package of rate and surcharge changes for the city’s water, sewer and sanitation systems, including a higher capital improvement surcharge for water and sewer, an increase in the residential sanitation base charge and a new $3-per-month bulk-waste fee.

Authority trustees said the package is intended to fund aging infrastructure and to stabilize funding by tying certain annual adjustments to the federal inflation index.

The authority voted unanimously to adopt the changes after a public discussion that included staff presentations, technical details from the line maintenance supervisor and comments from multiple residents.

City staff proposed raising the water capital-improvement surcharge from the current $0.75 to $1.23 per 1,000 gallons, with future annual adjustments equal to the U.S. Department of Commerce inflation measure. “We are proposing that this go to a dollar 23 per thousand gallons of water consumed,” staff member Britney said during the presentation. Staff said the water capital funds are restricted to water system capital work such as treatment-plant and distribution-line repairs.

Staff gave example bills to illustrate the effect on a typical household. Using the authority’s modeling, a household with a 3,000-gallon monthly water use would see a bill that is now about $65.70 rise to an estimated $82.79 after the first year of increases and to about $89.16 after the second year — about a $23 monthly difference over two years, or roughly a 35% increase in the total monthly…