El Paso Water rates increasing ninth straight year to support construction projects
El Paso Water rates and fees are increasing for a ninth consecutive year.
The El Paso Public Service Board, which oversees the city's water utility, Wednesday approved increasing water and sewer rates for the utility's more than 221,000 residential and commercial customers starting March 1. Residential rates are increasing 4 percent.
The main driver for increasing rates again is to help pay for ongoing construction projects for pipelines, sewage-treatment plants and other infrastructure that provide customers with a sustainable water supply, El Paso Water CEO John Balliew told the PSB members.
The new rates and approved budgets are smaller than projections made last year because costs were cut and the utility derived more income from interest on investments and from selling utility-owned land, Balliew noted.
The average El Paso residential bill for water and sewer service will increase by $2.80 monthly or a 4% increase.
However, the PSB also is expected to approve next month a proposed 13% increase in the monthly stormwater fee on utility bills. That would result in a 74-cent monthly increase on the average residential bill for a monthly charge of $6.40.
That would bring the total increase on an average residential water bill to $3.54 per month, or a 4.7% increase, for a total average bill of $79.56 per month.
That does not include the city's trash pickup charges that are also on El Paso Water bills.
In 2023, the average residential water bill increased by 13.5%.
The PSB this year put approval of the utility’s proposed stormwater budget in a separate meeting to comply with the Texas law for public notice of the proposed stormwater budget vote.
The PSB approved a new water and sewer budget of $889 million, an increase of $30 million. That includes $558 million for new construction and other improvements.
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The PSB next month also is expected to approve the proposed, new $99.4 million stormwater budget, which will include $71 million in improvement projects.
The biggest ongoing project is the $730 million expansion and upgrading of the Roberto Bustamante sewage-treatment plant in East El Paso.
The new budget also includes a big chunk of the $47 million cost of the utility's new headquarters and parking garage being built next to its current headquarters at 1154 Hawkins Blvd., in East-Central El Paso. The parking garage is currently under construction.
Mayor Oscar Leeser was the only PSB member to vote against the new water and sewer budget and rate increase. Lesser during Wednesday's meeting complimented utility officials for producing this year "probably the best budget I've seen." But he hasn't voted in favor of the utility's budgets in the seven years he's been on the PSB, he noted without further explanation.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter, now known as X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Water rates increasing ninth straight year to pay for projects
