Water rates to rise 5% in July

Baltimore County residents will see their water bills increase almost 5% starting in July after the city Board of Estimates approved a new rate Wednesday.

The board unanimously approved the new rate, which is a 4.9% increase from last year’s rate and would apply to water bills issued to county residents starting July 1, according to the meeting agenda.

The city, which owns and operates the drinking water and sewer system used by county residents, agreed to the increase at the request of Baltimore County Public Works Director D’Andrea Walker to cover operating costs, according to a May 4 letter she sent to Baltimore City Acting Public Works Director Jason Mitchell.

The rate increase would apply to residential and commercial users who receive quarterly bills from the city. Metered fire rates, for fire hydrants, would increase to $373.19 annually.

The average increase for a family of four would be about $168 annually, according to Lowell Melser, a county public works spokesperson.

The arrangement has been a point of contention between the two jurisdictions amid accusations by the county that the city has failed to verify whether it’s accurately billing county customers for water usage after installing a new metering system in 2013.

In 2018, the county refused to pay the city a $23 million water bill for service dating back to 2014 after officials said they had issues verifying and communicating with the city that it was being billed fairly for county water usage.

The county agreed last July to pay the city $5.1 million to settle that dispute, according to a letter of resolution to Mitchell from Walker and County Administrative Officer Stacy Rodgers obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore County agreed to pay the city $3 million in a “direct transfer” with an additional $2.1 million to settle bills for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, according to the letter.