Proposed Water Rates Increase

In March 2018, Evansville’s Waterworks Department filed a request for rate increases and bond authorizations with the Indiana Regulatory Commission (IURC).

Evansville is requesting a three-phase increase from 2019, 2020 and 2021. The date of the future increase an amount of the first increase is dependent on the IURC decision, which should be made in late 2018.

Most residential customers use between 4 and 5 thousand gallons of water per month. Assuming a customer used 5,000 gallons, the proposed rate increases for every 1,000 gallons of water purchased are:

• Phase I is about $1.10 or an 18.9% increase
• Phase II is about $1.07 or a 15.5% increase
• Phase III is about $.63 or an 8.0% increase

The rate increases are needed to pay for approximately $157 million in upgrades to the city’s old and deteriorating water mains. The utility services over 1,000 miles of water mains, of which 600 miles are cast iron pipe dating back to the early to mid-1900’s. The Utility plans on replacing 15 miles of failing water mains per year over the three-year period. The bond funds will also be used to make needed repairs and upgrades to the Water Filtration Plant and booster stations. The original portion of the City’s Water Filtration Plant was built between 1895 and 1900.

Overall:

• Eighty-eight (88%) percent of the rate increases will fund bond debt payments and payments in lieu of taxes related to those improvements.
• 8% of the overall increases are related to operating expenses over the three-year period.

A 2017 IURC study of 97 Indiana water utilities revealed that the average water bill for those utilities was $33.22 for 2017, compared to Evansville’s 2018 water bill of $28.87, for customers using 5,000 gallons per month. EWSU’s 2018 water bill is much lower than Indiana’s statewide average.