Bills for Water, Sewer Will Increase 3.7 Percent July 1

Rochester Hills residents will see an overall 3.7 percent increase on water bills starting July 1.

The increase, announced this week, takes into account recent rate change notices by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and Oakland County Water Resources. The average residential user will see a $4 increase on the bimonthly water bill, according to an analysis by the city's finance department.

The rate change break-down:

• Water will cost $4.80 per unit, a 3.2 percent increase. (A unit equals 100 cubic feet. There are 748 gallons in 100 cubic feet.)
• Sewer will cost $4.47 per unit, a 6.4 percent increase.
• The city's customer charge, which includes the cost of servicing customers, connections, bills, meter reading, postage, etc., will be reduced from $7 per bill to $6.12 per bill, a 12.6 percent decrease.

This is the second year the customer charge has been lowered. It was decreased from $9.40 to $7 in 2010-11.

The average residential user, who uses 12 units of water per billing cycle, will see the water and sewer bill increase from $113.20 to $117.34.

Joe Snyder, the city's senior financial analyst, said the rate changes were recommended by the Water and Sewer Technical Review Committee and are designed to bring stability to the water rates.

Rochester Hills was one of few suburban communities where the DWSD commodity charge decreased this year — it fell 6.8 percent. Snyder said that could be attributed to customers watering during non-peak hours and was something to be celebrated. 

But he said all signs point long-term to increases of about 8-9 percent each year from DWSD to Rochester Hills. The current rate increase is designed to help absorb potential increases the next several years.

"We are really trying to look at multiple years as far as water rates go. The Water and Sewer Technical Review Committee agreed to smooth the rates out over the next three to four years to slow the rate increase," Snyder said. "Certainly we were very happy to get a decrease this year because of our watering practices, but that's a one-time correction."