EWEB approves rate hikes.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Water and wind power rates will rise beginning in May, the Eugene Water & Electric Board decided Tuesday.

The elected board voted to approve the increases after two public hearings that attracted no public comment.

The utility will increase water rates by an average of 9.2 percent - 8.6 percent for residential customers. The rate hike translates into a $1.31 monthly increase, to $16.54 from $15.23, for a typical customer who uses 9,000 gallons of water a month.

The increase follows a similar hike last April in which residential water rates climbed 7.7 percent. Unlike a year ago, EWEB is not proposing an increase in standard electric rates this spring.

The rate increase for commercial water customers is 12.3 percent inside the city and 10 percent outside the city.

EWEB says the increase is needed to cover a $1.5 million deficit that would otherwise occur at current rates. The increase anticipates the need for more capital funds to maintain EWEB's aging water infrastructure. About half the increase will go toward a reserve fund that is below target levels.

Ironically, EWEB's water rates have increased in part because conservation-oriented customers are using less water than what the utility has forecast.

The new rate is still lower than what water customers at most comparable Oregon utilities pay, including $17.11 a month in Springfield and $20.09 in River Road-Santa Clara.

While commissioners were unanimous in approving the rate hike, members Ron Farmer and John Brown cautioned that customers would be more concerned if they understood that the utility expects to require large water rate increases over the next several years to cover the cost of replacing miles of aging pipe.

"I don't think the public has any idea about these double-digit rate increases (we're projecting)," Brown said. "But we have no choice - we have to replace those lines."

The commissioners were also unanimous in increasing wind power rates by 1 cent per kilowatt hour - the premium voluntarily paid by those customers who want to have all or part of their electric power derived from wind.

EWEB is moving from a strictly wind power program to a "Greenpower" program that acquires power from a range of alternative sources, including wind, solar and geothermal. The utility's wind-only program is currently fully subscribed.

The rate increase, the first since EWEB introduced its wind power program in 1999, is expected to bump up residential customers' bills from 0.5 percent to 4.9 percent, depending on what percentage of power they purchase from wind.

- Jeff Wright