At a joint meeting of the Acton Water District (AWD) Commissioners and the AWD Finance Committee (FinCom) on January 22, the Commissioners voted for a 50% increase in water rates beginning in July 2024. The water rate increase will be applied evenly across residential, municipal, and commercial water takers, and equally across summer and winter seasons, and across all usage tiers. The water rate increase pertains only to the usage portion of the water bill – the part that is proportional to how many cubic feet of water the customer uses. The $15 per quarter service fee will remain unchanged, and the debt fee will go down slightly. An explanation of these three different components of an Acton water bill is on the AWD “My Water Bill” page.
Before deliberating on water rates, the FinCom recommended and the Commissioners approved a budget of $7,315,307, up from the $6,675,518 that Treasurer Christine McCarthy projects that the District will have spent by the end of FY24. Acton is not alone in seeing hefty increases in water rates; this is a local manifestation of a national trend, driven by supply chain disruptions, cost of replacing aging pipes and equipment, and more volatile precipitation in a changing climate, as well as increased cost of remediating pollution. In Acton’s case, the FY25 increase in water rates is largely driven by the increased operational cost of treating Acton’s water for PFAS. The first of three PFAS treatment facilities that the AWD has under development is expected to be completed this spring, according to an update by District Manager Matt Mostoller at the same January 22 meeting.
To inform the water rate discussion, the Finance Committee had requested that the Treasurer model scenarios in which a higher portion of the water rate increase would be loaded onto the summer versus winter usage and/or onto the higher volume usage tiers, with the intent of mitigating the price increase for lower water usage users and disincentivizing non-essential summer water use. The alternative options presented were projected to generate a smaller surplus for the District than the scenario in which the same 50% increase was uniformly applied across all tiers, seasons and customer categories–and thus were not adopted. The considered options can be viewed in the meeting packet for the January 22 meeting.
The Commissioners also reviewed a draft of the Warrant Articles for the District Annual Meeting which will take place on March 20, 6pm, at the R.J. Grey Junior High School. Unlike last year’s Warrant which was weighed down by several multimillion dollar borrowing authorizations for capital expenses, this year’s warrant does not include any large capital items. A new item on this year’s Warrant is $500,000 for implementing a Lead Service Line Inventory, in conformity with new regulations from the United States Environmental Protection Agency
Kim Kastens is a member of the Acton Exchange Board of Directors. She chairs the Water Committee for Green Acton, and is interested in all aspects of water in Acton.
