Study: MWRA water-sewer bills on the rise

December 18, 2007 02:41 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

Bills for typical water and sewer service customers rose an average of 6.2 percent this year in the 61 communities served by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, according to a recently released report. It was the fourth time in five years that the rate increases have exceeded 6 percent.

Joseph Favaloro, executive director of the MWRA Advisory Board, which released the Water and Sewer Retail Rate Survey, said the increase underlined the need for the state to budget money to help control the increases.

"The state is a critical piece in rates management," said Favaloro, whose organization represents the cities and towns that are members of the MWRA. "We're cognizant of all the existing priorities with the state budget, but we're hoping to get at least what we got last year and hopefully more."

The state budget currently includes $23 million to curb increases in water rates around the state; the MWRA gets about $17.75 million of that, Favaloro said. The state has been helping out ratepayers since the mid-1990s. Contributions have ranged from as little as zero to as much as $58.6 million a year.

"We'll take everything we can get," said MWRA spokeswoman Ria Convery. She said the authority would love it if the state appropriated $23 million again in next year's budget.

More increases appear to be on the horizon.

The MWRA is already looking at a $30 million, or 5.8 percent, increase in its wholesale prices to communities, assuming it gets the same level of assistance from the state next year. The MWRA price usually accounts for about two-thirds of the local water bill; local operating and capital costs account for the rest, said Favaloro.

Over the next nine years, the MWRA, which is paying off debt on major projects, expects to hike its charges to communities from about $518 million to about $846 million.

To calculate the increase in bills, the advisory board looked at households consuming a typical 90,000 gallons of water per year. The average increase in bills for such households among the MWRA communities was 6.2 percent,or $63.