Water bills to go up slightly in April

HALEYVILLE - If a utility has an operating expense increase, they have one of two options: absorb the loss or pass the cost on to their customers. To keep the same status, several water utilities in the area are passing the cost on to the customers.

Residents of Haleyville, Lynn and Nauvoo should expect to see a slight increase in their water bills beginning in April. The rate increase was brought up at the Haleyville Water Works and Sewer Board meeting Tuesday, Jan. 28.

According to Lane Bates, general manager at the HWWSB, it is only a three percent increase for Haleyville customers inside and outside city limits and includes commercial customers. He cites the operating expense as
 the reason for the raise.
Water in Nauvoo is purchased from Lynn, who purchases water from Haleyville. Water is sold to Haleyville from the Upper Bear Creek Water Authority. The decision to implement the increase is due to UBCWA raising the cost of water sold to Haleyville. Water is sold by UBCWA per 1,000 gallons.
While Double Springs purchases some of their water from Haleyville, a rate increase has not been discussed at a town meeting. Other than Haleyville, those municipalities purchase water from UBCWA include Phil Campbell and Bear Creek. Currently, the issue of increasing the water bill for these two towns has not been discussed at any town meetings.
“Operational cost of waste water, sewer, over the last 10 years has went up 4.5 percent per year,” Bates said. “Operating expense for water is an average of 2.59 percent. That’s just the vendors increasing their prices. If you average those out, your over three percent. Things just keep going up.”
Much of the increases are due to Alabama Department of Environmental Management and Environmental Protection Agency federal mandate regulations, Bates indicated.