News Release

Water Rate Increase Begins with September Bills

August 28, 2008

Huntsville Utilities' water customers will pay a little more for water beginning with September's bills.

Last November, the Huntsville City Council approved a two-year plan for rate increases. The first rate increase went into effect December 1, 2007 with the second one effective September 1, 2008.

The rate increases were needed to help finance the construction of an expansion to the South Huntsville Water Treatment plant and upgrades to existing water facilities.

The project to expand the South Huntsville Water plant by twelve million gallons of water per day will allow Huntsville Utilities' customers continued access to safe drinking water and water for irrigation of lawns during the summer. The project required the borrowing of $24,000,000 in early 2008 and the plant expansion is scheduled to be online in the later part of 2009. Construction on the plant began this spring and it is thirty-five percent complete and ahead of schedule.

The rate increase in September will add $0.30 to a small user of 3,000 gallons per month. It will add $0.48 per month to an average domestic user of 6,000 gallons per month. Larger increases will impact those that use more than 6,000 and for those customers that use the water for irrigation.

The average water customer who uses approximately 6,000 gallons a month of water will have a bill of $12.21, up from $11.61 before the increase. Even with this increase, Huntsville Utilities rates remain some of the lowest in the region.

To help offset the cost of the new treatment facilities, the Huntsville Utilities Water Board last year approved a system development charge of $1,200 per residential lot. This will allow for new development to help fund the facilities needed to meet the higher demand for water that new development creates.

"Huntsville Utilities has a long history of providing high quality water service while still maintaining very low rates," stated utility spokesman Bill Yell. "Even with these increases, our rates will be below just about every water system in the region," Yell added.

The three water treatment plants that supply Huntsville Utilities customers recently received "Best-Operated Water Plant" awards for their operations from the Alabama Water Pollution Control Association.

Huntsville Utilities set all-time records last summer for water use as the community continued to struggle with drought conditions. On August 24, 2007, the Huntsville Utilities Water System established a record for the amount of water pumped in a single day when 75.65 million gallons of water were pumped from the Utilities' water plants and wells. The operation system capacity for the water systems is approximately 82 million gallons a day.

Water use has been down some this year because of more rainfall than last year, but Huntsville Utilities has still pumped over 12 billion gallons of water this year through the month of July.

Huntsville Utilities is a publicly owned, not for profit utility with over 83,000 water customers in Huntsville and Madison County.