Bloomington utilities looks to raise drinking water rates as part of 4-year cycle
In a news release issued on Tuesday, the City of Bloomington Utilities (CBU) announced that it is now taking steps to increase drinking water rates for its customers. Currently residential customers pay $4.38 per 1,000 gallons and a fixed monthly charge of $7.93 for a 3/4-inch line.
In a news release issued on Tuesday, the City of Bloomington Utilities (CBU) announced that it is now taking steps to increase drinking water rates for its customers.
Currently, residential customers pay $4.38 per 1,000 gallons and a fixed monthly charge of $7.93 for a 3/4-inch line.
With other charges, for wastewater and stormwater, a typical monthly bill works out to around $100 a month, based on 5,000 gallons of drinking water, according to CBU.
Details about the proposed rate increase won’t be released until about two weeks from now, at the Aug. 25 meeting of Bloomington’s utilities service board (USB).
The move to increase rates is not unexpected, because CBU tries for relatively frequent rate increases, to keep the jump at any one time relatively small. For each of the three utilities that CBU provides—drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater—CBU tries to implement a rate increase about every four years. The last time CBU got a proposed rate increase (a “rate case”) approved by the IURC (Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission) was in 2021.
Connected with the proposed rate increase is a capital improvement plan.
Responding to a question from The B Square, a spokesperson for CBU indicated that details aren’t already being provided about the proposed drinking water increase, because of the settlement that resulted from the 2021 rate case. For the 2021 rate increase, two parties objected to the amounts that CBU was requesting—11.73% more in the first two years and 9.38% more in the second two years. In the end, the IURC approved just an 8.39% increase in the first two years and a 9.11% increase for the next two years.
For the 2021 rate case, the two interveners (the parties that objected) were Washington Township Water Authority and Indiana University. As part of the settlement agreement, CBU had to agree to loop WTWA and IU into the cost of service study that it conducted for its next rate case, which is now being pursued. As the CBU spokesperson put it this week, “[As] part of the settlement from our previous rate case, we committed to gathering feedback from all involved parties before finalizing the proposed rates, and that process is still underway.”
Under the terms of the settlement from the rate case that concluded in 2021, CBU has to give at least four opportunities for WTWA, IU, and the OUCC (Office of Utility Consumer Counselor) to give input on the cost of service study—covering data review, revenue requirements, cost allocation by customer class, and rate design.
For the current rate case, no increases are proposed for the wastewater (sewer) and stormwater fees. Here’s a breakdown of the costs for what CBU considers to be a typical customer bill, a household that uses about 5,000 gallons of water a month.
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