Briley Township Implements New Water Rates
New water rate increases are being implemented in the Atlanta area. Although their infrastructure, built over 40 years ago, is still in decent working condition, they have had a few challenges.
“We just had some inspections done on our pumps and things, and we had to go through and use some ARPA money to get a new motor on one pump,” said Ken Werner, Briley Township supervisor. “Routine maintenance has been here long enough that it’s about due for some heavy maintenance.”
General inflation prices have caused water rates to raise nationally. The combined water and sewer bill for a typical U.S. household has increased by 54.8 percent since 2012, or on average 4.1 percent annually, according to a new Bluefield Research Report, U.S. Municipal Water & Sewer: Annual Utility Rate Index, 2023.
However, in Briley, the rates have remained low, leaving this increase, long overdue. “Our rates are really good,” Werner said. “We’re probably the lowest, if not one of the lowest anyway, of the surrounding areas. So, the increase, everybody’s going to feel a little bit. It went up $10 a quarter. We pay ours on the quarter.”
In spite of long-standing efforts to keep costs down, inflation has taken its toll. “Increase in inflation and the testing that we have to go through to send our water off to get tested to make sure that it’s good, those rates increased. Everything has increased, so we’ve had to increase our rates as well.”
