A Clallam County Public Utility District No. 1 consultant will study the effect on customers of a proposed 23 percent increase in water rates over the next five years.
The consultant also will study whether the utility should move toward charging one overall rate instead of individual cost-based rates to its nine water systems: Fairview, Gales, Mount Angeles, Monroe, Carlsborg, Clallam, Island View, Panoramic and Evergreen.
Consultant Tom Gould, vice president of Economic and Engineering Services Inc. of Bellevue, told PUD commissioners Monday that the utility’s current water rates would be too low to pay for capital projects planned during the next five years.
He presented four potential rate increases that ranged from 15 percent to 28 percent, depending on what capital projects were built and how much those projects were funded from reserves.
Treasurer Shelley Burgett said because the utility’s new water treatment plant is such a large capital outlay, no other major capital improvements were planned in 2003-04.
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