PSB raises rates for some, lowers them for others
The Public Service Board approved the El Paso Water Utilities new budget, which will increase water rates for most customers but reduce the water bills for customers who don’t use a lot of water.
Average residential customers pay about $42.80 a month right now. Starting March 1, their bill will increase to about $46.96.
Customers who use a low amount of water will see a decrease in their bill from about $26.64 a month to $21.80.
Low usage customers tend to be low-income residents who don’t use water for outside purposes, said John Balliew, President and CEO of the El Paso Water Utilities.
The utility said the increase would be used for $133 million dollars worth of projects next year, including replacing aging water lines, new generators and a new purified water plant that’ll turn wastewater into drinking water, plus maintaining cash reserves – which helps the utility get low interest rates when borrowing money for big projects.
“The viability of the community is at stake here. We don’t have any sort of margin. In the middle of the Summer in June, if we don’t have any water in the Rio Grande, we cannot supply water that the customers would demand in that month so it’s a serious situation that we’re trying to avoid,” said Balliew.
Mayor Oscar Leeser, was the only member of the Public Service Board to vote against the increase. “I felt that the way it was presented was not very transparent and I was unable to be supportive of the rate increase,” he said.
