Sewer bills set for an increase in Millbrae

Residential fixed rate costs are planned to jump from $58.90 to $62.43 beginning July, eventually reaching $78.82 by July 2026, according to the city. Charges based on use will not increase this year or next, but will increase from $6.62 per 100 cubic feet to $7.01 in 2024, $7.43 in 2025 and $7.87 in 2026.

The city’s $23.90 clean bay charge, which goes toward paying off costs incurred from a 2009 lawsuit involving sewage flowing into the Bay, are not planned to increase.

The City Council unanimously approved the changes during its meeting June 14. Rates were most recently increased in 2019, the last year of an increase schedule initiated in 2015, when rates for an average home were closer to $71 prior to the clean bay charge.

City staff estimate the rate changes will generate an additional $10.5 million over the next five years for the city’s sewer system, which is sustained entirely by revenue from sewer bills.

“You’ve got a lot of aging facilities, a lot of infrastructure pipelines have been in the ground for 50, 60, 70, 80 years, and you need to make these ongoing investments for safe and reliable service,” said Alex Handlers, a representative of Bartle Wells, the city’s consultant handling sewer spending.

“Also, you have to keep your revenues aligned with operating cost inflation, with a goal of also supporting balanced budgets over the long run,” he said.

The city’s current sewer rates are already among the most expensive in the county; of 22 agencies providing the service, the city’s are the sixth most expensive, according to a Burlingame report.

And the city’s water rates, billed together with sewer, are also increasing. The fixed rate, currently $25, will increase to $26.70 in July, $28.40 the following year and $30 in 2024 for homes with standard 3/4-inch meters.

The charge based on use will increase from its current $10.40 per 100 cubic feet of water to $11.20 this July, $12 in 2023 and $12.80 in 2024. The city estimated a typical single-family home uses 600 cubic feet of water per month.

Those changes are in line with an increase schedule approved prior to the pandemic, motivated by climbing wholesale rates from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, from which the city buys its water, and infrastructure upgrades, according to the city. The council opted to halt increases in 2020 and 2021 due to potential financial hardship experienced by residents.

This week, Vice Mayor Gina Papan expressed frustration at the ongoing increases, and requested a long-term plan for upgrading the infrastructure.

“It’s very, very frustrating, we just keep raising water rates and sewer rates, and where’s the endgame?” She asked. “When are we going to get on top of all of our infrastructure, and the plan for that, instead of being proactive … we’re just reactionary.”

While the SFPUC halted water rate increases from 2017 to this year, costs are projected to begin increasing again by 5% per year through at least 2030. Wholesale water costs account for 39% of water bills in Millbrae, another 37% goes to operations and maintenance and 25% goes to capital improvements, according to the city.

For the sewer rates, City Manager Tom Williams reported that the city has received 101 protests from ratepayers following notices sent to homes. Per California Proposition 218, the city would have needed to receive more than 3,000 protests, equal to half the ratepayers in the city, to block the increase.

Water use restrictions

In a related matter, the City Council this week approved moving forward with a host of water use restrictions, in line with a recent state mandate calling on local water suppliers to enact plans preparing for impending water shortages.

Residents will need to water lawns only on designated days, and be prohibited from washing vehicles or hosing down buildings except with recycled water, among other rules. The city will be releasing more information on restrictions in coming weeks. Similar rules have already been enacted in several other Peninsula cities.

According to a city report, the SFPUC allocated the city 639 million gallons of water in the coming fiscal year, but the city’s projected water use (sans the restrictions) for the period was 684 million gallons.

“A lot of this is being driven by the SFPUC and the state of California,” said Williams, who also questioned how the city would be able to build new housing given constrained supply. “These are some real, difficult questions that need to be solved at the state legislative level … because you can see that if we have one more year, two more years of this drought, in Millbrae specifically, we’ll have to declare a health emergency.”

Papan said while she understood the reason for the restrictions, “it still hurts, majorly.”

“You’re asking people to save more [while] they’re going to pay more, and this doesn’t make any sense to all of us who have to pay these enormous water bills,” she said.

Councilmember Reuben Holober, however, struck a more positive tone, pointing to the more significant hikes from 2015, amid the last major drought in the state.

“This shows we are moving in the right direction,” he said. “That we are no longer, at least not at this time, having to impose double-digit rate increases.”

corey@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200, ext. 105