News Release

Huntsville City Council Approves Water Rate Increases

November 20, 2007

The Huntsville City Council approved a two-year plan for rate increases at their meeting Tuesday night. The first rate increase will be effective December 1, 2007 and the second will be effective September 1, 2008.

The rate increases will help finance the construction of an expansion to the South Huntsville Water Treatment plant. The project to expand the 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 will require the borrowing of $24,000,000 in early 2008 and the plant will be online by the later part of 2009.

The increase in December will add $0.42 to a small user of 3,000 gallons per month. It will add $.93 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.

To help offset the cost of the new treatment facilities, the Huntsville Utilities Water Board last week 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. Even with both increases, Huntsville Utilities rates remain some of the lowest in the region.

"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.

Huntsville Utilities set all-time records this summer for water use as the community continues to struggle with drought conditions. On August 24, 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.

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