OKC Council approves water rate hike

The Oklahoma City Council has approved new water rates that will raise the typical annual utility bill by $160 by 2021, with significantly steeper increases for customers who use large amounts of water.

A revised rate structure and rate increases will finance, over the next 10 years, $2.5 billion in water and sewer improvements, including a second pipeline from reservoirs in southeast Oklahoma.

City leaders say system upgrades and expansion are needed to sustain economic growth, as they were in the 1960s, when the city built two reservoirs and the first 100mile pipeline from Lake Atoka.

No objections were raised to the latest rate hikes and they passed unanimously.

Controversy this time around centers on the objections of southeastern Oklahoma residents to further transfers of water from their region to central Oklahoma.

Oklahoma City received a permit last month for up to 115,000 acre-feet of water per year from the Kiamichi River basin, where the city has storage rights at Sardis reservoir.

Opponents of plans to transfer Kiamichi water to Oklahoma City have asked a Pushmataha County judge to invalidate the permit or order the Oklahoma Water Resources Board to reopen the permit hearing.

An attorney for the city responded last week, arguing the request should be dismissed because opponents failed to name the city as a defendant, naming only the state Water Resources Board.

Conservation basis

The revised rate structure adopted by the city council is designed to encourage conservation, building on steps first undertaken three years ago.

Then, the goal was to reduce overall water use by 4.3 percent after five years.

"Conservation-oriented" water rates are set in tiers, or blocks.

Current residential rates are set in two blocks, one for those using 10,000 gallons or less per month and the

other for those using more than 10,000 gallons.

New blocks will differentiate among customers using 2,000 gallons or less, those using 2,001 to 10,000 gallons, those using 10,001 to 30,000 gallons, and those using more than 30,000 gallons.

Utilities Department figures show 77 percent of residential customers use 10,000 gallons or less. The typical customer uses 7,000 gallons per month.

That bill is expected to go up $3.36 per month effective Jan. 1 in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Demand forecast

Oklahoma City supplies

drinking water for some 1.3 million people in the metro area, delivering treated water to city customers and suburban water utilities.

Regional water demand is projected to nearly double to 353,000 acrefeet per year by 2060, as the population of Oklahoma City alone grows from 650,000 to more than 1 million.

Increases will raise monthly rates for commercial customers with the greatest demand, such as Integris Baptist Medical Center, which is among the top 10 water users.

A financial impact report said a large hospital would pay $72,700 more per year by 2021.