City of Tulsa Water and Sewer Department Director Clayton Edwards proposed Thursday raising water rates 6 percent and sewer rates 9 percent for the next fiscal year.
If the increases are approved, residential customers classified as low users would see their bills go up about 10 cents a day, average users 19 cents and high users about 29 cents.
Edwards is asking for the increases for several reasons. There’s debt service to keep up with, improvements to continue and costly federally mandated repairs to avoid. He mentioned another reason people may not consider.
"We're starting to see — and a lot of utilities are starting to see, and it's not unexpected — but we're starting to see customers conserve water," Edwards said. "We're starting to see lower revenue coming in, lower per capita usage coming in."
All water and sewer capital funding must come through utility rates.
Tulsa’s rates are about 2 percent lower than nearby comparable cities’, and Councilor Anna America said Tulsans should consider themselves lucky despite rates likely going up.
"Many, many, many communities aren't in the situation we are where we have very high quality and a good, steady, reliable supply of water," America said.
Tulsa’s stormwater department is not asking for a rate increase this year, but increases of 5 and 4 percent the following two years are anticipated. Stormwater fees are included on city utility bills.
