OGDEN — After months of work, Ogden city’s new water utility rates will have to wait another week before finally being set.
The city council voted Tuesday night to allow another week to consider the adoption of new fees for sewer utility services.
Under a new ordinance, base culinary water rates will rise from the current price of $14.98 to $17.50 in fiscal year 2013 for all water customers with a 5/8- or 3/4-inch meter, which 93 percent of Ogden residents have.
The rates vary based on meter size, usage and whether a resident has secondary water.
According to a report from Lewis Young Robertson & Burningham, the city’s consultant for the study, the typical Ogden water user who has culinary and secondary water uses about 6,000 gallons of culinary water every month. Those users will see their culinary water bills increase from $21.72 per month in FY 2012 to $26.50 in FY 2013.
The typical resident without secondary water uses about 20,000 gallons of culinary water per month. Those users will see their culinary rates increase from $56.23 per month in FY 2012 to $58.70 in FY 2013.
The new rates are set to go into effect July 1. If the ordinance passes next week, rates will increase by another 88 cents in FY 2014 and by another 64 cents in FY 2015, for residents with 3/4-inch meters or smaller.
Cody Deeter, with LYR&B, said the rate increases are necessary to help pay for $46.7 million worth of water capital improvement projects over the next 10 years.
The city will issue bonds for $17.8 million to help pay for those projects.
Deeter said $13 million of those bond funds will be used to replace Ogden’s aging water treatment facility. The council will vote on the water rate ordinance May 22.
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