BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Redwood City Council has decided to raise sewer rates by 4.5% for each of the next three years to pay for improvements such as new pipelines.
For the typical customer, the rates will go up by $3.60 a month in August. Currently, a single family home pays $78.24 a month in sewer fees.
Starting on Aug. 1, that will go to $81.76 a month.
On July 1, 2020, the rate will rise to $85.44 a month and again on July 1, 2021 to $89.28 a month.
These rate increases, which were approved by council on June 10, are intended to raise money for the city to replace aging pipelines and rehabilitate the regional wastewater treatment plant.
The plant treats sewage from Redwood City, San Carlos, Belmont, Woodside and the West Bay Sanitary District.
Even with the increases, the city will remain in the middle of the pack for sewer rates in the mid-Peninsula, according to Redwood City’s data (see chart provided by Redwood City).
On one end of the scale, Palo Altans pay $38.66 a month. On the other end, Hillsborough residents pay $257.92 a month.
Councilwoman Alicia Aguirre said she’s grateful that the city is in the middle range of sewer costs, despite being responsible for half the costs for the treatment plant.
Aguirre noted that the city works to keep rate increases under double digits so residents can swallow the increase. Not all of the city’s residents pay their sewer bill to the city. Some residents of Friendly Acres and Emerald Hills are a part of other sewer districts that are controlled by the county. Those rates are controlled by the county’s Board of Supervisors.
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Someday I’d love to read a headline like, “Redwood City Council Lowers a Rate on Something.”