By Steve Plunkett
Mere months after raising the rates that residents pay for drinking water — with many paying up to 36% more — Gulf Stream town commissioners have scaled back the level of the increases.
After hearing complaints about “almost shockingly high” bills, Mayor Scott Morgan and the commission in February asked staff to review the increases they had approved in October after Delray Beach boosted its base rate.
It did not help that water bills cover two months of use, doubling the perceived increase, and that residents before the change paid only $3.60 per 1,000 gallons of water for the first 20,000 gallons, effectively being subsidized by neighbors who use a lot more.
On Oct. 1, the rates for the town’s four “tiers,” categories based on lot size and water usage, each went up $1.30 per 1,000 gallons of water after Delray Beach’s rate for Gulf Stream rose to $4.90 per 1,000 gallons.
Commissioners, succumbing to complaints, on March 13 lowered each tier’s rate for each 1,000 gallons of water used by 40 cents, to $4.50 for the first tier, $4.73 for the second, $6.24 for the third and $10.20 for the fourth. That makes the overall rate increase for this year 90 cents per 1,000 gallons.
“I think it sounds good,” Commissioner Joan Orthwein said.
With the lowered rates, the town will break even with what Delray Beach charges it, said Mark Bymaster, the town’s chief financial officer. The higher rates would have provided a $100,000 cushion to cover repairs or capital expenses of Gulf Stream’s water infrastructure.
The town charges increasingly higher rates for residents who use increasingly greater amounts of water — a system designed to discourage property owners from watering their lawns too much.
Delray Beach, which has supplied Gulf Stream with drinking water for at least 50 years, told the town in 2024 that it had to leave the city’s system. The city is building a new water plant and says it can only afford one large enough to serve its own population, which is expected to grow by 7,000 residents.
Gulf Stream is in the process of switching providers and connecting to Boynton Beach’s system. When it does so, estimated to happen in April or May 2027, 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.
“Looking forward to lower rates in ’27,” Commissioner Michael Greene said.
But to do that, a water main must be installed 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.
Along with lower rates, Gulf Stream expects to get better water pressure from Boynton Beach once it connects.
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