water bill rising

Anne Niethammer and other homeowners at her East Oahu condominium complex were just getting used to higher water rates put in place in 2012 when she noticed another change on her bill earlier this year.

In a transition from its previous two-month billing cycle, the Hono­lulu Board of Water Supply in January began collecting a fixed "billing" charge on a monthly basis, effectively doubling the amount paid by consumers.

Niethammer and most other Board of Water Supply residential customers used to pay the fee — currently $7.02 — once every two months. Now they pay it once a month.

"It really caught us off guard," Niethammer said. "It's a huge new source of revenue for them. Instead of $7 times six months, it's now $7 times 12 months," she said.

The seven-member Board of Water Supply board of directors voted in November 2011 to double the billing charge for most residential customers as part of a five-year rate-hike plan that went into effect in January 2012. The BWS held off on doubling the billing charge until January of this year, when it switched to the new monthly billing cycle, said BWS spokes­woman Tracy Burgo.

The additional revenue from the billing charge will be used to cover the cost of a new billing system, maintenance and repairs to automatic meter-reading equipment, new customer services such as online bill-viewing and bill-paying, and other expenses, Burgo said. The BWS has more than 170,000 customers.

"I know this is a difficult situation, and we do empathize with our customers," Burgo said. "We are customers, too."

The bad news for BWS customers is that the billing charge is going to continue to rise. Beginning July 1 the now-monthly fee goes up to $7.70; to $8.44 on July 1, 2014; then to $9.26 on July 1, 2015.

In January 2012, when bills were sent out every two months, the fee was $6.40, rising to $7.02 six months later.

The increase in the billing charge is the smallest part of three BWS bill increases customers are absorbing. The water portion of the bill and the sewage portion are also increasing.

In 2011 the board approved a 70 percent increase in water rates over five years. In 2010 the City Council approved a 29 percent increase in sewer fees from fiscal 2011 through fiscal 2016.

The increases in water, sewage and billing charges combined will push the average bill for a household using 13,000 gallons of water a month to $190.57 a month by fiscal 2016, from $155.63 a month today.

The BWS decided to switch to a monthly billing cycle in the midst of the increases. That was done for several reasons, including allowing the BWS to more quickly identify unusual water usage resulting from leaks, said Burgo. The new billing cycle also allows customers to "better align" their water/sewer bill payments with other bills, according to the BWS website.