San Bruno eyes utility bill hikes: Council to consider increasing water, sewer bills for system repairs

The fee hikes are necessary for the city to afford more than $80 million worth of repairs to the city’s pump stations, wells, water storage tanks, plus a variety of sewer and wastewater main improvements, according to the city report making the case for the rate hikes.

“The rate evaluation reveals that rate increases are needed for the water and wastewater utilities to cover necessary operating and capital improvement costs,” according to the resolution up for approval.

Should councilmembers approve the recommended increase, a standard $140 bimonthly water bill would eventually increase to $170 by the 2021-22 fiscal year. An average $162 wastewater bill on a similar schedule would increase to $197 by the end of the rate hike.

San Bruno residents already face one of the more expensive water bills in northern San Mateo County, as only Belmont, Montara and Hillsborough pay more, according to a city report based on rates from last October. Neighboring South San Francisco customers pay $55 bills on a similar schedule and those in Millbrae pay $47. Sewer rates are closer to the middle of the pack for surrounding communities, according to the report also indicating San Bruno residents pay a comparable combined amount to those in many other local cities.

The rate hikes are recommended by a city subcommittee formed to consider the issue. Should the council approve the suggested amounts, residents would soon be granted a chance to protest and a public hearing would be held, in advance of the new structure being implemented in July.

Increasing the rates over five years is recommended by the subcommittee to grant officials adequate time to plan the variety of capital improvements needed, according to the report. Fees were last hiked in 2012, at a rate of close to 10 percent.

Beyond the needed repairs, the city’s cost for water reflects a reduction in consumption through the increased focus on conservation, as well as projected increased expense of purchasing water from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

During the height of the drought, San Bruno residents had faced a mandatory 8 percent cutback on water use. Shutting down the spigots resulted in the unintended consequence of drying up the city’s revenue stream though, as water funds are often filled through charging customers for use.

San Bruno was also partner to a $113 million project shared with the SFPUC, California Water Service Company and Daly City to tap into a massive Peninsula aquifer under a drilling project which commenced in 2015.

The utilities and two cities have agreed not to draw from the aquifer during wet years allowing it to replenish, then use it in years of drought. As a tradeoff, the SFPUC will supplement Cal Water, San Bruno and Daly City with a comparable amount of free Hetch Hetchy water during wet years.

While a portion of the rate hike proposal is associated with limited water use, a primary driver of the need for more money is the variety of necessary infrastructure fixes to both the water and sewer systems, according to the report.

“The most significant factor impacting both water and wastewater utility systems is the age of infrastructure,” according to the report. “The average infrastructure age of both systems is over 60 years old; some sections of the city have pipelines over 100 years old.”

Should councilmembers approve the hikes, they would also reserve the right to set rates at a lower amount than those scheduled should the financial burden lessen in coming years.

The San Bruno City Council meets 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 14, in the San Bruno Senior Center, 1555 Crystal Springs Road.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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