By Steve Plunkett
Water bills in Gulf Stream went up sharply as of Oct. 1 to make up for the higher rates that Delray Beach is charging the town — turning a potential $230,000 loss into a $107,000 surplus.
“Delray is essentially gouging us at $4.90 (per 1,000 gallons),” Mayor Scott Morgan said.
The city has been raising its rates to pay for a new water plant. It also adds a 25% surcharge, the most state law allows, for the drinking water it sends to Gulf Stream. The town then customarily adds an extra percentage to customer water bills to pay for repairs to the town’s water system and capital improvements.
The rate increase charged by Delray Beach to Gulf Stream is the sharpest hike yet — up 28.6% — from $3.81 per 1,000 gallons to $4.90.
Gulf Stream charges water customers in town using four “tiers” that are based on total usage and lot size. The town charges increasingly higher rates for customers using increasingly greater amounts of water — a system designed to discourage property owners from watering their grass too much. Despite that, officials noted, some sprinkler systems are still turned on twice a day seven days a week.
Town commissioners on Oct. 10 approved new rates for town customers starting at $4.90 per 1,000 gallons for the first 20,000 gallons, and rising in tiers to $10.60 per 1,000 gallons for use deemed excessive.
Those tiers all increased by $1.30 per 1,000 gallons — to $5.13 for the second tier, $6.64 for the third and $10.60 for the most punitive fourth tier.
The new rates in town have increased even more than Delray Beach’s rate increase because of steps the town took last year to hold the line on its water rates.
“Right now, actually, we’re subsidizing slightly the first tier of water at $3.60,” Morgan said, before voting to raise the rates.
Last year, the town kept the same $3.60 first-tier rate despite the increase in the Delray Beach charge to $3.81 per 1,000 gallons. The town ate the difference for customers consuming less water while still recouping dollars from residents who heavily irrigated their lawns.
Despite this year’s stiff increases, the future should be brighter for water customers in town.
Gulf Stream is in the process of switching providers and connecting to Boynton Beach’s system. When it does so in a year or more from now, the cost to the town will plummet to $3.75 per 1,000 gallons under a 25-year agreement Gulf Stream and Boynton Beach signed last fall.
Before that can happen, a water main must be laid from Seacrest Boulevard east along Gulfstream Boulevard to a connection just inside the entrance to Place Au Soleil on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway.
Delray Beach told the town last year it had to leave the city system. The city says it can only afford a new water plant large enough to serve its own population, which is expected to grow by 7,000 residents. It has supplied Gulf Stream with water since at least 1976.
Along with lower rates, Gulf Stream expects to get better water pressure from Boynton Beach once it connects.
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