The Albemarle County Service Authority's Board of Directors proposed Wednesday to significantly raise water and sewer rates effective July 1, pending its completion of a rate study scheduled to begin later this year.
The rate increase will cover higher operation costs of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, which operates reservoirs and water treatment plants to provide water for the County and the City of Charlottesville, said J. Randolph Parker, County Service Authority board chair.
"All we're doing is passing on a rate increase from Rivanna," Parker said. "We're not passing a whole rate increase, we're just subsidizing the difference from what we are getting from customers and what Rivanna is charging us."
The current water rate for the summer, considered June through October, is $3.20 per 1000 gallons of water. The proposal would increase the rate to $3.45 per 1000 gallons, said Bill Brent, County service authority executive director.
For the winter months, November to May, the current water rate is $2.67 per 1000 gallons and the proposed increase would raise it to $2.85 per 1000 gallons. The proposal would raise sewage charges by about 28 percent, from $2.91 per 1000 gallons to $3.74 per 1000 gallons, Brent said.
County water consumers will have an opportunity to voice their concerns on the proposal at a public hearing scheduled to take place June 26 at the Albemarle County Office Building.
The meeting "is open to all of our customers to make their sentiments about the increase known," Brent said.
County businesses that heavily use County water will be forced to pay more if the Board passes the rate increase.
"Obviously it impacts their building, operations and costs of their service or product, but it's applied equally so no one operation is at a disadvantage to the other," Brent said.
Hotels and restaurants may be among those hit the hardest.
"During the summer we can use one to two million gallons per month," said Michael Walton, director of facilities at the Boar's Head Inn. "It's definitely going to have a negative impact."
Especially in the summer months, the Boar's Head Inn uses large quantities of water for its pools, evaporation from heating and cooling systems and turf chemical treatments for its Birdwood Golf Course, Walton said.
He also addressed possible actions to alleviate water costs, should the rate increase.
"Last year during the [drought] we created a group of local hotel people who got together to discuss water conservation throughout hotels and what we could do as a group to improve our water situation," he added. "I assume we will do something similar this year."
The City will also indefinitely increase its water rates pending a rate study, Director of Public Works Judith Mueller said.
"We will be changing the rates -- we do it every year," Mueller said. "It's fair to say that they will be going up."
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