Your Columbia SC water bill is probably going up. Find out by how much
Columbia water customers will likely soon be paying a little more for their morning showers.
Beginning in July, water and sewer bills from Columbia Water are expected to increase by 5%, as part of an effort by City Council to raise the money needed to fix old and failing water infrastructure across Columbia.
Council members seemed to agree on the rate increase during a budget work session Tuesday. Mayor Daniel Rickenmann addressed the increase, saying the city hadn’t raised water or sewer rates in three years during the COVID-19 pandemic but now needed to deal with longstanding problems with city infrastructure.
“We took a pretty sizable hit to help people through the pandemic. Our costs to operate aren’t going down. We’re doing everything to be more efficient,” he said, adding the rate increase will help the city pay for work in Rosewood and other areas with failing water systems.
So, how much will your bill increase? That depends on how much water you use.
The average Columbia Water customer uses just under 6,000 gallons of water per month and pays about $68 a month between their water and sewer bills, according to city data presented to council Tuesday. With the increase, that bill would go up to just over $71 per month.
Each year for five years, the bill will go up another 5%.
Council members agreed raising the rates after several years without an increase was necessary, particularly after some water projects years in the making have been delayed because of inflation, Councilman Howard Duvall said.
The money from the rate increases will also help the city finish updates to its wastewater system, as required by a 2013 Environmental Protection Agency consent decree that mandates a laundry list of expensive improvements, said Assistant City Manager Clint Shealy, who also oversees Columbia Water.
Despite the pause on increasing rates during the height of the pandemic, Columbia water bills have been slowly but steadily on the rise for a number of years, largely due to long-delayed water and sewer system maintenance and improvements. The average in-city customer’s monthly bill has risen about $8 in the past five years, according to city data and previous reporting.
The city has put off certain water system upgrades in favor of addressing the EPA requirements, and other projects that have been approved haven’t been paid for. Councilman Will Brennan, who represents District 3, stressed Tuesday that finishing waterline updates in the Rosewood area needed to be a priority with the money from the new rates.
The budget does not include money for upgrades that could be required to address unknown levels of PFAS (per and polyfluoroalkyl substances), often referred to as “forever chemicals,” which are increasingly showing up in waterways.
President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to establish the nation’s first limit on how much PFAS will be allowed in drinking water. Shealy has estimated that meeting that limit could require $150-200 million worth of upgrades to Columbia’s existing water system.
The proposed budget doesn’t anticipate any of those upgrades. Even if it did, it would take a much higher rate increase than 5%, Shealy noted.
The increase is part of the city’s upcoming budget. City Council will vote on the budget twice before it’s formally adopted before July 1.
