New Hyde Park, NY — At its May 23rd public rate meeting, the Board of Directors of the Water Authority of Western Nassau County (Water Authority) approved an overall 9.4% increase in water rates. Residential customers will receive a 4.1% increase while commercial customers will receive an increase based on the size of their meter. Public fire hydrant rates will remain unchanged from the current annual charge of $936.

The 9.4% increase in rates is a result of the Water Authority’s increased costs related to debt service costs required to fund the Water Authority’s capital plan which includes critical projects related to wellhead treatment or iron removal. The most significant project is the design and construction of two VOC (“Volatile Organic Compound”) treatment facilities required to treat the water provided by four wells, all located in Elmont, which are currently out of service due to the VOC levels. These wells are responsible for providing approximately 7.5 million gallons of water capacity to our system on a daily basis and are critical to the western portion of our service territory. Water supplied by the four wells is stored in the 5-million gallon storage tank located across from Belmont Park.

The Board of Directors and Water Authority staff completed its review of the comprehensive rate study conducted by D&B Engineers and Architects, P.C. (D&B). D&B was hired to independently assess and evaluate the Water Authority’s existing water rate structure as distributed to its four customer classes while ensuring adequate funding of all water operations as well as all capital and debt service costs.

The quarterly bill for the minimum use customer will increase from $41.51 to $44.38. Average annual residential charges (based on average usage of 104,600 gallons per year) will increase from $440 to $466. The average annual commercial charges (based on average usage of 482,300 gallons per year) will increase from $1,832 to $2,293.

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