Higher water rates for Corpus Christi customers may kick in sooner than usual.
City officials have discussed expected increases in water rates for several months as new water supply projects have come online in the face of severe drought.
However, exactly how much the increase may be — and over how many years it would be staggered — hasn’t been fully established.
Those increases may begin appearing on bills three months earlier than when new rates typically go into effect, said City Manager Peter Zanoni in a May 29 media briefing.
Historically, water rate adjustments don’t go into effect until January.
This year, though, it’s possible new rates could begin in October, Zanoni said.
How much rates may rise is not “known yet with certainty,” he wrote in a May 29 message to the Caller-Times, adding that city officials will “be developing them in the coming weeks.”
In the earlier news conference, Zanoni had described the City Council as having approved about $1 billion in water supply projects, a number that does not include funding for desalination endeavors.
Although the city is seeking federal and state grants, the lion’s share of the costs will be covered via ratepayers, he said.
That’s because the utilities system is supported through rates, as opposed to taxes or other revenue collected by the city for other departments.
Water and wastewater rates only benefit those systems.
It’s expected that this year city officials may approve new water rates as soon as early August, according to Zanoni.
The current drought “should teach us that the system’s not resilient enough, it’s not robust enough, it’s not diverse enough,” he said.
“We have to significantly invest, and that means all our ratepayers — our residential customers, our commercial, our large-volume industrial customers and our wholesalers — all have to help build the better system because we don’t want to go through this again,” Zanoni said.
Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Corpus Christi residents may see higher water rates as soon as October
Reporting by Kirsten Crow, Corpus Christi Caller Times / Corpus Christi Caller Times
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