SLO city approves water and sewer rate increases 

Starting next month, San Luis Obispo city residents and businesses will be paying more for water and sewer services.

• File Photo By Peter Johnson
• RATE HIKE Following the approval of a rate structure, the average San Luis Obispo residential customer is about to see their water and sewer bill go up by about 10 percent this July.

On June 6, the SLO City Council unanimously approved a new, two-year water and sewer rate structure—which will raise the average monthly residential water and sewer bill about 10 percent this July, and another 6 percent in July 2024.

"[Without the rate increases], it wouldn't allow us to deliver on our capital projects or infrastructure projects, as we call them," SLO Utilities Director Aaron Floyd told New Times.

According to Floyd, some old water pipes may further deteriorate, have root intrusion into the lines, breakage in lines, or even have raw sewage come up in the streets or end up in the creek. While the city needs more revenue to take care of its existing infrastructure, SLO also needs to improve older portions of its wastewater system.

"Part of it is just to maintain current, existing infrastructure because the overall cost has gotten more expensive, but we also have a lot of those capital projects or infrastructure projects," he said.

In April, the city sent out legally required notices to all property owners or customers directly responsible for the water and sewer costs, allowing them an opportunity to submit a written protest against the increase. For the rates to be overruled, more than half of the customers—at least 8,281—would have to submit written appeals.

At the June 6 City Council meeting, the city clerk reported that it received only 1,295 written protests.

With the new rates finalized, the city expects water revenues to increase 8.5 percent in 2023-24 and 7.5 percent in 2024-25, and sewer revenues to increase 4 percent in both fiscal years. How that impacts the individual bills of each household or business will vary.

"We have several different customer classes," Floyd said. "So depending upon if you're a large industrial user or a single-family residential, and how much water you're using, everyone in the city pretty much has a different water rate. So no, everyone is not getting a flat 8.5 percent increase. Some will get a little more, some a little less."

Several residents who opposed the rate increases wrote to the city to protest the "base fee" that the city charges to every customer, regardless of the amount of water they use. The base fee for single-family residential water customers will increase from the current rate of $24.12 to $28.15 starting this July, and it will go up again to $30.25 in 2024. The sewer base fee is also increasing from $21.89 to $23.58, and then to $24.52 in 2024.

"I am one elderly person with no yard watering and conserve the water I do use, and I get penalized for that?" resident Kathryne Atkins wrote. "Reject the proposed water rate changes ... [and] give staff direction to return in 90 days with a rate system that corrects the inequity and anti-progressive features of the present system." Δ