Indian River County residents can expect to pay a bit more on their water bill in the coming months, as Utilities Finance Manager Bryan Beavers said they aim to make operational costs more sustainable.
"When I got here, the utility was in an interesting position in terms of their revenues was not sustainable to cover their expenses. We've been working for the last few years on trying to correct that. We were on a path that it just wasn't sustainable. Our expenses were growing faster than revenues and had been for like 20 years. I think over the last 20 years, they maybe only had one rate increase, like five percent or something. It was pretty crazy," Beaver said.
Bryan said that the money collected from the increased rates will be used to ensure that that the water systems are up to standard.
"This rate increase is focused on two things: Operational needs of our utility, which goes and buys chemicals to purify the water, the electricity to pump the water across the county. Those are two large expenses that we incur. Also, there's tremendous amounts of capital expense that we have to maintain in order to keep the pipes in the ground in good condition and keep our wastewater plants running in good condition. All of this goes towards just keeping the utility operational up to date," he said.
The increase, which has been implemented in phases, will go into place in October.
"The increase that we're doing was divided up over a two-year period. The first increase in year one would have raised that rate from $50 to $60. And then the second rate increase, which goes into effect on Oct. 1, 2025, takes it from $60 to $67," he said,
Bryan reassured that despite the increase, the county's water is still among the cheapest in the area.
"What's interesting is, we looked at our rates as compared to water utilities across the Treasure Coast and the Space Coast. Even with the rate increase, we're still going to be the lowest water utility rates on the Treasure and Space Coast. The average water utility rates have increased over that 25-year period approximately 210%. For Indian River County, during that same 25-year period, our rates went up in total 12%. So this is a more of a catch-up that we're doing," he said.
This increase, along with any further potential increase to the rates, requires commission approval.
"In order to maintain our rates going forward, we need to propose rate increases more commensurate going forward with inflation," he said.
For more information, visit the IRC utilities website.