By CASSIE MCKEE, Four Points News
The board of the Lower Colorado River Authority, which provides water for more than a million people in Central Texas, will vote next week on a proposed rate increase for firm water customers, including the City of Austin and Water Control & Improvement District 17, which includes Steiner Ranch.
LCRA staff is recommending that the rate for firm-water customers be increased from $151 an acre-foot to $175.46 an acre-foot, beginning in January 2015, and increase an average of 3 percent a year from 2016-2019, according to information on the LCRA website. The board will consider the item at its June 18 board meeting.
John Hofmann is the executive vice president for water for the LCRA.
John Hofmann, executive vice president for water for the LCRA, said the new rate would be considered a “drought rate” and is necessary to make up for the loss in revenue from no longer selling water to downstream agricultural users.
“In the absence of any of that water being sold downstream, that leaves us at a deficit,” Hofmann said.
As a raw water provider, LCRA does not set rates for individual residents or businesses that receive treated water from their local supplier and so can’t speak to how each provider would deal with new rates. The cities of Cedar Park and Leander are both firm water customers of LCRA.
“We want to reserve comment until the public process is complete,” said Jennie Huerta, communications manager for the city of Cedar Park.
David Steed is president of Water Control & Improvement District 17.
David Steed, president of WCID 17 in Travis County, said his water district would hold off on increasing rates for as long as possible for customers. WCID currently has more than 13,000 accounts covering a population that is approaching 40,000 people.
“We’re going to try to hang on without doing any radical changes for as long as we can, maybe as much as a year,” Steed said. “If we have to go to court with (the LCRA) over the water management plan or price increases, we’re going to have to raise prices to cover our legal fees. That can get expensive quickly.”
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