PSC approves 27% Waukesha water rate increase
Waukesha - The state Public Service Commission has approved an average 27% rate increase for the Waukesha Water Utility effective immediately.
Single-family homeowners will find 21% rate increases on their next quarterly bills, said Nancy Quirk, the utility's technical services manager. The rate boost will cost those families using about 15,000 gallons a quarter an extra $16 a quarter, or $64 a year.
Duplex and other apartment residents will be given rate increases of between 28% and 31%, according to the decision approved this week by PSC Water Division Administrator John L. Schulze Jr.
The 27% rate increase is an average of all residential and business customers.
A portion of the rate increase will pay for costs related to the city's search for a new water supply. PSC staff agreed that this rate boost will cover about $3.32 million in expenses accumulated from 2009 through the end of this year.
This is the first in a multiyear series of equally large rate increases needed to pay for the new supply, utility officials have said.
Waukesha is asking the eight Great Lakes states to approve a diversion of water from Lake Michigan to the city. If approved, Waukesha would stop using deep wells drawing radium-contaminated water from a sandstone aquifer.
The city is under a court-ordered June 2018 deadline for providing residents and businesses with water that does not exceed federal health protection standards for radium.
Waukesha has been discussing a water purchase agreement with Oak Creek and Racine for 11 months. There have been no talks with Milwaukee as of this week.
