(BCN) East Bay Municipal Utility District directors voted 5-2 Tuesday to increase customers’ water rates by 19.25 percent over the next two years to pay for infrastructure and maintenance work.
The rate hike calls for the typical single-family EBMUD customer to pay an extra $8.15 a month in water rates over the next two years and see their monthly bill rise from $40.45 to $48.60 over that time span.
And they come on top of water rate increases that have totaled 12 percent in the past two years that the water agency has imposed on its 1.3 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Most of the 17 customers who spoke at Tuesday’s board meeting oppose the rate hike, saying it’s too steep.
But a majority of board members said the 90-year-old water agency needs to raise its rates again to help pay for infrastructure and maintenance work, such as replacing aging pipes and other equipment, that’s been deferred during the economic downturn in recent years.