Port Chester Roundup At Google Groups: Rates going up for water customers in Port Chester

United Water Westchester is raising its rates for 12,500 customers in
Rye, Rye Brook and Port Chester. The new rates, which the New York
State Public Service Commission announced Thursday, will take effect
Dec. 22 and climb over the next four years.

"The commission has recognized that it is never a good time to raise
customers' rates, especially in these times of economic difficulty,"
Commission spokesman James Denn said, "(but) it was needed to ensure
continued delivery of safe and reliable water supply."

On average, United Water customers currently pay $568 a year for their
water. Under the new pricing plan, that bill will climb 5.7 percent to
$600 the first year; 5 percent to $630 the second year; 4.8 percent to
$660 in year three and, finally, another 4.5 percent, to $690, in the
fourth year. With a 2 percent surcharge, conceived as an answer to the
rising price the company pays New York City for water and applied over
the first three years of the plan, customers can expect to tack
another $21 onto their annual bill.

The new rates will earn United Water about $693,000 more per year.
According to Denn, that money will be applied to maintaining and
repairing an aging infrastructure and buying increasingly expensive
water. United Water doesn't own any water sources; instead, it buys
water from neighboring municipalities that do. In July of this year,
New York City increased the cost of the water it sells by 25 percent.
Denn said $1.5 million is earmarked to repair pipes and valves over
the next four years. An additional $7 million will be used to replace
leaking pipes.

"Without the rate increase, the infrastructure, the pipes become older
(and) it leads to reliability problems," Denn said.

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