By Jane Smith
Delray Beach residents could see average water and sewer bills jump more than 30% over the next five years, while the cost for those who regularly use much more city drinking water could double.
City commissioners unanimously approved the increases in a preliminary vote at their May 3 meeting, with the largest increases in the potable water rates. A final vote is expected May 17, when the public will have a chance to comment on the proposed rates.
The average residential water user, who consumes 6,000 gallons a month, would see a combined monthly bill of $75.66 in five years, up from the current $57.85.
Officials say the added income is needed to pay for a new water treatment plant. That plant will cost about $125 million, Daryll Parker of Willdan Financial Services, the city’s water rate study consultant, said at the March 8 commission meeting. The current plant is one of the oldest in the state.
Delray Beach has not raised its potable water rates since 2009, said retired City Manager David Harden, who discussed his concerns with The Coastal Star.
“The rates need to be modified,” Harden said, but the ones proposed “are too high, too fast.”
In January, he and his wife, Andrea, sold their historic home on Swinton Avenue. They used 29,500 gallons a month, mostly for the lawn, he said, because the city’s cheaper, reclaimed water isn’t available for irrigation there.
Their water consumption put them in one of the highest-use residential categories.
Their average monthly water bill was $72.01, Harden said. If they had stayed in that house, their monthly water bill would increase to $164.35 under the proposed rates, he said, raising the water portion of the bill more than $1,100 a year.
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