CONWAY -- The Conway City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to hold a public hearing to review a proposed increase of nearly 30% in the city's wastewater rates -- the first increase in seven years.
"Really, there's three projects kind of driving it," said Bret Carroll, chief executive officer of Conway Corp., the city-owned utility services provider. "First of all, just aging infrastructure, the need to replace our aging wastewater infrastructure. There's also the main wastewater collection main [pipe] that runs north and south, we just need to increase the capacity of that main. Also, we are converting our Tucker Creek wastewater treatment facility into an equalization basin that will help us with a more efficient operation of our Tupelo Bayou wastewater treatment plant."
Carroll said future plans of the wastewater treatment system will be discussed more in depth at the hearing set for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 26 in the City Council chambers.
The board of directors for Conway Corp. previously approved the proposed rates, which will go into effect in January. The City Council on Tuesday had the first reading of the ordinance setting the rates, but the ordinance will not be final until after the public hearing and the council's third reading of the new rates.
The wastewater -- or sewage -- increase will be phased in over three years, for a total increase of 27% for each of the three basic wastewater residential service fees, including the customer user charge, the rate-per-1,000-gallon fee and the minimum monthly charge.
• The total monthly residential customer user charge will rise three times by Jan. 1, 2022, to $7.32 from the current rate of $5.77. This user charge will rise to $6.64 by Jan. 1, $6.97 by 2021 and $7.32 by 2022.
• The monthly consumption charge will rise over three years to $8.35 per 1,000 gallons from the current rate of $6.58 per 1,000 gallons. This charge will rise to $7.57 on Jan. 1, $7.95 in 2021 and $8.35 in 2022.
• The minimum monthly charge will rise over the same time period to $24.02 per month from the current rate of $18.93. The minimum monthly charge will rise on Jan. 1 to $21.78, $22.87 in 2021 and $24.02 in 2022.
For commercial wastewater users, the monthly customer charge will rise over three years to $9.17, with a consumption charge of $8.35 per 1,000 gallons for the first 25,000 gallons, $9.10 per gallon for the next 75,000 gallons and $8.35 per 1,000 gallons of water above 100,000 gallons. The minimum monthly charge for commercial customers would rise to $25.87 by Jan. 1, 2022.
The current commercial rates were not immediately available.
Conway Corp.'s wastewater system has a combined daily capacity of 22.4 million gallons, and is maintained through Tucker Creek and the Tupelo Bayou wastewater treatment facilities, according to the organization's website.
Metro on 11/13/2019