AURORA | Aurora will likely see its water rates increase starting next year.
At an Aurora City Council meeting Monday council members agreed to move forward with an increase in the city’s water rate by 3 percent in 2017, as well as a monthly increase of $1 in the city’s storm drain fee. Aurora Water officials say it will pay for a gap in revenue and an increase in customers. Last year, Aurora Water also increased the stormwater rate by $1.
Aurora Water is looking to implement increases for both its water and stormwater rates beginning next year, after six years of keeping the city’s water rate the same. Aurora Water says it needs the increase in order to meet its continual goal of being able to supply 50,000 new residents on top of the 350,000-plus that make up Colorado’s third-largest city.
Jo Ann Giddings, deputy director of Aurora Water Financial Services at the City of Aurora, said the rate hikes combined would average to a $3 per month increase for an average Aurora home, which uses about 8,000 gallons of water per month. That means, for water customers, their bill for water and stormwater services would increase from $84 per month to $87 per month, according to city data.
Giddings said at the meeting that utility sales have remained flat since 2010, but that Aurora Water customers are increasing, which means there are more ground pipes and meters to maintain.
Giddings said the flat utility sales are due in part to Aurora water residents becoming more savvy consumers who have used less and less over the years, a trend that has emerged since the statewide drought in 2002.
From 2010 to 2016, the number of Aurora water customers has increased by 7 percent, and is now at 81,305 customers, according to City of Aurora data.
Aurora Ward I City Councilwoman Sally Mounier opposed the measure, stating it would affect low-income seniors in her ward who cannot afford the increase.
“I have to protect these people, I have senior citizens living on fixed income,” she said.
If the proposed increase is approved by Aurora City Council, city officials said the rate hike will still be less than Denver Water, which approved a 3.8 percent increase this year to fix aging pipes and underground storage tanks, according to The Denver Post. Denver Water customers still receive lower water bills overall, according to Aurora Water Spokesman Greg Baker.
Cities around the state, including Colorado Springs, Thornton, Brighton, Fort Collins and Boulder have all increased their water rates this year. This year Colorado Springs approved a 4.5 percent water rate increase for its customers.
Giddings said Aurora has been able to keep its rates lower than other large municipalities because of WISE, a regional water supply project between Aurora Water, Denver Water and South Metro Water Supply Authority.
Aurora’s water system consists of 12 reservoirs that span the Front Range and Continental Divide, providing the city with more than 156,000 acre-feet of storage located in three water basins.
City officials, already eyeing three future reservoirs to grow Aurora’s water storage system, appear close to buying land for the future Wild Horse Reservoir in Park County. Lisa Darling, Aurora Water’s South Platte Basin program manager, said at a meeting in April that reservoir is likely to be designed and completed by 2022.
The measure still needs final approve from Aurora City Council at a regular city council meeting.