County water rates to spike 20%
In what a group of water watchdogs fear could be a harbinger of harsher things to come, County water bills will spike 20 percent this year, if rates proposed by the Albemarle County Service Authority win approval. The increase would combine with last year’s 30 percent jump to mean customers would pay 55 percent more than just two years ago and nearly triple what they paid in 1999.
“It’s ridiculous,” says longtime Albemarle citizen Lucy Bennett. A catering company employee, the 24-year resident of Minor Ridge Road cites soaring fuel and other bills and says she’d like to sign a petition to roll back water rates. “Everything’s draining us right now,” she says.
The rates, recently advertised in the Daily Progress legal notices and posted on the Service Authority’s website, show water climbing 11 to 13 percent. But the bulk of the increase comes in sewer rates, which will jump 29 percent. For a family using 5,000 gallons per month, an amount in the mid-range of the three pricing tiers, the monthly bill would climb from $59.31 to $70.92— an annual hit to the pocketbook of $139.
“No one likes rates to go up,” says Service Authority director Gary Fern, who points to two causes: a rise in wholesale rates set in March by the area’s (more)


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