Rate Increase's
2023 Reason for Increase:
Water and sewer rates must generate the necessary revenue to confront today's water and sewer challenges, including maintaining, replacing and expanding infrastructure. At the same time, the city must be mindful of households that struggle to meet basic expenses. After review of the City's water and sewer funds the Council has been directed to implement the following rate increases. The city realizes that our rates are on the higher side but if you scroll down, you can see the past rate increases and the reasons behind them.
WATER RATE - Due to the water tower reconditioning project which cost the city $543,950.00 which was paid from capital revenues it's time to start rebuilding that fund for future capital projects. The city's new well #3 is now completed and there are new debt payments that need to be paid.
2022 Water Rates - $10 base fee - $6.30 flow fee
2022 Irrigation Rates - $0 - $6.30 flow fee
2023 Water Rates - $11 base fee - $6.40 flow fee
2023 Irrigation Rates - $4.00 base fee - $6.40 flow fee - this fee is for those residents who have an irrigation meter only
SEWER RATE - The Clear Lake/Clearwater Sewer Authority implemented a monthly $10 surcharge fee which charges each city per account. This was implemented to help with capital replacement costs at the sewer plant.
2022 Sewer Rates - $50 base fee - $13.64 flow fee
2022 Sewer Only Rates - $100
2023 Sewer Rates - $55 base fee - $13.64 flow fee The City Council was not in favor on implementing the full $10 a month surcharge fee so decided to only charge $5 per month for the first 6 months and revisit the rates again in June of 2023
2023 Sewer Only Rates - $110
2017 Reason for Increase: (This increase was never implemented)
After review of the City's sewer fund, the Council was asked to make a 3% increase to the sewer's flow rate and a 3% increase to the sewer only accounts. The reason for this increase was to help increase the sewer fund. The past few years the City had not seen significant growth in the sewer fund. The Mayor and members of the City Council met with members of the State Legislature on numerous occasions in an effort to secure grant money for the project to lessen the financial impact for residents. These efforts did not succeed. The City was told that so many other cities in the state were also requesting grant money for upgrading of wastewater systems, that there wasn't enough money available and as a result the legislature was not going to award grants to any of the projects. Every other known avenue of possible grant money was also looked into without success. The City Council will do everything possible to keep these rates as low as possible, however the Public Facilities Authority who are providing the loan for the project, require that sewer rates are adequate to repay the debt. As new construction occurs and more users are added to the system, the financial burden for each household will be less. At the present time, we must meet the conditions for environmental quality set by the State even though we realize that this increase in the sewer portion of your bill is significant. Your water rates will not be increased at this time only the sewer rates. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work to grow and responsibly develop our community.
2013 Reason for Increase
The City adopted a rate schedule in 2009 that spelled out future operating, capital and debt service needs for the water and sewer funds. In 2013 water/sewer users will see an substantial increase in their monthly bills. During our upgrade to the waste water treatment facility the Public Facilities Authority was kind enough to keep the first five debt payments as low as possible, which will end in 2013. In 2014 our debt payment increases $46,000, leaving with the council having to make tough decisions. After much research it was decided that rates will need to be increased to better prepare ourselves for the BIG payment coming due in 2014. The debt scheduled provided by the PFA seems to be more stable after 2014, which is a positive thing for the city and its users. During 2012, lower than projection flows were billed, likely due to high precipitation throughout the spring and early summer months. Additionally, the Regulatory Basis of accounting used by the City of Clear Lake allows the City to account for it's water and sewer fund on the cash basis of accounting. In 2009, the City was required to convert it's sewer fund to accrual basis of accounting per our loan/grant contract with the Public Facilities Authority. As a result, the City is now required to account for depreciation in it's sewer fund. That is an added expense that must be considered when looking at utility rates. Furthermore, new commercial and residential construction has decreased resulting in reduced WAC/SAC revenue and less users are available to pay for recent upgrades to the infrastructure (WWTP and lift station project).
Recently, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency increased the standard of treatment for wastewater discharged into the Mississippi River at our treatment facility. Because of these tighter environmental standards, Clear Lake and Clearwater had to upgrade the existing wastewater treatment system from aerated ponds to Membrane Bio Reactor technology to achieve the required standards. This technology does an excellent job of ensuring environmentally safe discharge water, but it comes with a significant price tag. Clear Lake and Clearwater share the cost of the facility based on population usages. The current share is Clear Lake 20% and Clearwater 80%. This means that the City of Clear Lake must pay for 20% of a multi-million dollar upgrade and expansion over the next 20 years. The end result will mean significantly higher sewer bills.