High maintenance

As a Redwood City resident, I was interested, but not too concerned, when the Redwood City Council held a hearing on water rate increases last December. But then, in late February, the City Council approved an increase to the costs for solid waste services (curbside trash, compost and recycling pickup). I really sat up when I learned that on April 1 the City Council intends to hold a public hearing on a proposed increase to sewer service rates.

Some of these cost increases are due to increased direct costs to the city. For instance, the cost of water to Redwood City has risen some 27% or so since 2018, the last time the city increased water rates. Other costs, however, are due to necessary maintenance on the vast system of pipes, pumps, tanks and filters that keep that water clean and flowing to our homes, and to maintenance of the similarly complex system that carries our sanitary sewage to the wastewater treatment plant in Redwood Shores (which itself needs maintenance and upgrading; Redwood City, being a partner in the plant, is responsible for much of those costs). As for trash and recycling services, Redwood City contracts those out, so increases there come from Recology of San Mateo County, our service provider. Recology cites increased costs to dispose of and process solid waste as one of the main reasons for their increase.

As a homeowner, I try to perform much of my home’s maintenance myself, partly to save money and partly because I enjoy it. Redwood City’s large Public Works Department similarly does much of the city’s needed maintenance, while contracting out work that is beyond its ability. Thankfully, like any good homeowner, the city tries to anticipate problems and head them off before they become critical. Which explains the work around Redwood City over the last several years to replace or add new water tanks to the city’s system, to replace water mains and sewer pipes in several parts of the city, and to rehabilitate and replace two of the city’s sanitary sewer pump stations. All of this recent work was truly necessary to keep things flowing and keep our water supply safe for the foreseeable future. But it came at a cost: The materials and labor weren’t (and aren’t) cheap, resulting in increases.

Unfortunately, the recent increases were fairly hefty, and will in at least some cases be followed by more. Using my own situation with a single-family residence as an example, our January utility bill included a fixed service charge of $59.04 plus $6.13 per unit (748 gallons, or 100 cubic feet) of water, and a charge of $47.74 for solid waste pickup. Contrast that with our March bill: a $76.72 fixed service charge and a $6.45 per-unit charge for water, plus a charge of $61.74 for solid waste pickup. In both two-month periods we used three units of water: Our January bill totaled $125.17, whereas our March bill ran to $157.81, an increase of $32.64, or 26%. Although I don’t believe that solid waste rates have been set for next year, they are expected to increase again. Water rates, we do know. On my bill, the fixed water service charge will rise to $82.09, and the per-unit water charge will increase to $6.90.

Our household already has the smallest trash can available (20 gallons — which we rarely ever fill), so we cannot reduce our costs for solid waste service. As for water, we already take great pains to use as little as possible and, given the relatively low per-unit charge for water, further reductions would have little real impact on our bill. Finally, sanitary sewage service comes at a fixed rate per residential unit; nothing we do at our house can affect that. Thus, we’re pretty much stuck with all of the rates we are currently paying.

One cannot survive without water and a sanitary sewage system, and home pickup of solid waste is far more convenient (and likely cheaper) than dealing with it one’s self. Thus, I’ve accepted these rates as a cost of living. And the reasons for increasing them make sense. I just wish they didn’t all increase at the same time. It would seem easier to take if they were more spread out.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.