MWRA proposes 3.9 percent increase in wholesale water and sewer service price

By Colin A. Young, Globe Correspondent

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority is proposing to raise the wholesale price of water and sewer service to communities it serves by 3.9 percent.

In a proposed budget, the agency said the increase would equate to about $17 for households that use the average 61,000 gallons per year. The agency said the rate increase is part of a three-year strategy that began in fiscal year 2011 with a 1.49 percent increase and called for 3.9 percent increases in fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

“Back when we developed the FY11 budget, we wanted to try and minimize increases because of the uncertainty of the financial picture,” MWRA spokeswoman Ria Convery said. “That [FY11] was our lowest rate increase in 15 years. We wanted to make the following years something predictable and affordable.”

The increase in individual homeowner bills will vary, depending on how much water the homeowner actually uses and how local water departments decide to pass on costs to ratepayers.

“This is the wholesale amount, so each community may have to add their own costs,. Those costs get added to ours; that becomes the bill that is sent to your house,” Convery said.

The MWRA’s board of directors is slated to vote Wednesday to send the preliminary budget to the agency’s advisory board. The final vote will not come until June.

“This is preliminary. We don’t expect a drastic change, but it will be refined,” Convery said. “They won’t vote on the actual rates until June.”