Water bills in Dell Rapids are headed for an increase starting with the June 1st bill. The Dell Rapids City Council approved the first reading of three new ordinances that will increase the water bills for all residents in Dell Rapids. The increases are being put in place to pay back loans for the Southeast Infrastructure project.
The new rates and surcharges that are being implemented will go into effect for water used from April 20th to May 20th and will be first seen on the June 1st water bills.
Ordinance 860 will implement a SE Project Drinking Water Rate Surcharge per customer. The cost of this surcharge will be $7.70. Ordinance 861 will actually reduce some of the water bill. The ordinance will change the base rate from $12.00 to $11.90, and the per 1,000 gallon rate will decrease from $4.64 to $3.92. With the implementation of these two ordinances, a customer that uses 5,000 gallons of water a month will have a total water bill increase of $4.00 from $38.20 to $42.20.
Ordinance 862 is implementing a SE Project Clean Water Surcharge for $7.20 to the waste water portion of the bill. A customer that uses 5,000 gallons will have a waste water bill increase from $54.40 to $61.60.
The ordinances will have to have a second reading approved before they will be adopted.