City Council adopted an ordinance yesterday to be voted on at its March 3 meeting which would significantly lower water rates citywide.
The ordinance follows a similar reduction of wholesale water prices by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority last month.
Emergency water rate surcharges and increased municipal water usage since last year's drought left city water and sewer operations with a $500,000 surplus as of Dec. 31.
City Council member Kevin Lynch said the potential reduction from the current rate of $55.47 per cubic foot to $24.89 per cubic foot signifies a return to normal operation.
"We're reducing rates to the levels needed to sustain the water cost," he said. "The water itself is essentially free, but there are a lot of constant costs."
Following months of above average rainfall and last weekend's record snowstorm, Council member Rob Schilling said reservoir levels are at full capacity.
"People can't stay in a state of emergency forever when there's water going over the top of the dam," he said.
Despite the current high reservoir levels, Lynch said there still is need for long-term conservation.
"We're still a little concerned about groundwater," he said. "But for the most part, people are still conserving.A lot of the habits people got into will stick around."
In addition to lowering water rates, Council also will vote to slightly raise sewer rates from $20.92 per cubic foot to $22.65 per cubic foot. When it became necessary to raise water rates last fall, Lynch said sewer rates were left unchanged in order to keep things simple for consumers.
"The changes that were done in November were only done to the water rate even though both water and sewage costs increased," Lynch said.
Typically, the two rates are intimately related, Schilling added.
"Water and sewer used to be pretty close together," he said. "They go hand-in-hand."
The new water rates will be about 55 percent lower than the current rates that have been in effect since Nov. 18 of last year. They still will be nearly 6 percent higher than rates before the drought, however. Sewer rates will go up over 8 percent.
Last year's historic drought also forced the city to upgrade its water infrastructure. Plans currently are underway to dredge the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir and to add a bladder that can be inflated to increase capacity.
Third-year College student Greg Overholser expressed a mixed opinion toward the new rates and the water situation in general.
"If they had so much of a surplus, then giving it back in the form of reduced water rates is a good thing." he said. "But at the same time, what's a few dollars?"
Others, including third-year College student Bobby Naemi, were not as concerned.
"I didn't really think about it that much," he said. "I just paid my bills."
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