Water utility looks for big increase
Posted Mar 26, 2010 02:58:52 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Halifax Water has filed an application with the Utility Review Board that could see rates increase 40 per cent over the next 12 months.
Aging infrastructure and new federal environmental water quality rules are the reasons for the proposed increase according to Carl Yates with the utility.
“Some of (the infrastructure) is well over 100 years, appreciating that Halifax, of course, was founded in 1749,” says Yates. “We actually have some of the oldest infrastructure in North America.
Halifax Water has applied to the URB for a two-staged rate increase: one as of October 1st, the second on April 1st, 2011. The average customer would end up paying around $190 extra a year.
Yates estimates they’ll need to spend $1 billion over the next 25 years on improvements and upgrades. Yates says there will be problems if they do nothing.
“We will have collapses, we’ve had collapses,” says Yates. “We have sewers that leak. We have manholes that subside. We have pipes that break and when they do they cause tremendous disruption to people.”
The URB will hold a hearing on the proposed hike June 7.
