City proposes sharp increases for water rates

Boulder property owners are set to see sharply higher water and sewer rates beginning in May following the City Council’s approval Monday of the first increases in over a decade.

Under the proposed rate increases, which will be aired at a public hearing Apr. 20 before going into effect, most residential customers will pay $56.16 per month for water service, up 64% from the current rate. Monthly sewer charges will increase by $8, or 15%, to $55.84.

“This is the cost of running a water system,” the City’s bond counsel, Nathan Bilyeu, told the Council as it considered the new rates. The City last raised water rates in 2009, and sewer charges in 2014. But “inflation is happening, and you have to be updating your systems.”