Photo: Water and sewer rates are going up three percent

Belmont residents and businesses will see their water and sewer bills increase by a recommended three percent beginning in August.

Starting with the August 1 statement, the annual combined water and sewer bill for the average single-family household using approximately 200 cubic feet of water a month – the equivalent of 1,496 gallons – will increase from $624.99 in fiscal ’25 to $652.84 in fiscal ’26.

These are decreases from FY ’25 rate changes of four percent for water and eight percent for sewage, despite a significant jump in the bill the town received for the coming year from its water supplier. Belmont DPW Director Jay Marcotte told the board this year’s assessment from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority – which supplies the town with water and sewage removal – came in “a little high on the water side” at 10.5 percent, from $3.26 million to $3.61 million.

The chief reason for the jump was global climate change, according to assistant Town Administrator Jennifer Hewitt, resulting in drier than normal seasons including a summer drought.

“So when a community, like Belmont, has drought, our irrigation goes up because people have nice, manicured lawns and landscaping, and they don’t want that to go to the side, so the irrigation goes up,” said Marcotte.

Marcotte also announced fee increases for serviced provided by the Water Department. Backflow device test, backflow device retest, and a failure to repair failed backflow device goes from $75 to $100, while a temporary water meter assembly will change from a $150 fee plus usage to a $800 flat fee.

Belmont is mid-way through a five year overhaul of financing the town’s Water and Sewer Enterprise funds by Raftelis, a national management consulting firm focusing on municipal government and utilities.

Related article: May 10 Public Meeting On Plan To Increase Water/Sewer Rates After No Hikes For Half A Decade

The Raftelis report issued in May, 2023, suggested Belmont’s water rates increase by four percent annually for the first two years, and recommending an eight percent increase in sewer rates in fiscal ’24 and ’25 before reverting to three percent increases in the remaining three years.

As noted by Select Board Chair Elizabeth Dionne, up until fiscal year 2023 the town used to charge a flat rate for water and sewer regardless of the size of the water main, as it would rely on reserves to subsidize residential water rates. But this strategy placed a strain on those reserves which would over time place them in deficit.

“Now we have aggressive charge, which is the standard practice [nationwide.] It also allowed us to match more closely infrastructure expenses with users,” said Dionne.

6:09
of the many things we love about Jennifer, is that we get this forecasting really, really helpful for planning purposes. Jay and

6:17
I have been a great team on this so graphic. Tell us it’s been their model was phenomenal, and we’ve been able to build on that. That was something that was part of the analysis, that the model came with it, and so we simply updated the model to be able to provide this analysis. Okay, exhausts my questions.

6:42
Matt, did you

6:44
questions, is our Is there any trend reading to be said about our water usage throughout town? Is it like trending

6:52
up? Trending historically? No, actually, it’s not down. Everything is now low flow. So our water consumption, holistically, over the last 10 years, has been going down, down down every year. That’s why our cost of water, cost of infrastructure, cost of maintenance, doesn’t go down. So that’s why our rates have to kind

7:18
of keep up with that. Okay? And then the but the MWRA assessment also seems to keep going up. Yes, it’s like

7:27
we’ve had years where we were zero.

7:28
We had Year Zero. Sewer is one of the lower that we’ve seen. On average, it’s about 3% they came in at 1.4 it was less than 2% it was one of the lower ones I’ve seen in my time here. So that, to me, is a would show a term that the water consumption is going down like for residential use. Yeah, I know

7:52
there’s a lot of incentives to have low flow toilets and sinks,

7:59
washing machines, washing machine when we were kids are 4550 gallons alone. Now

8:10
they’re like eight. You want to talk through the recommended feed increases,

8:17
sure. So the first so we’re in year three of the bra tell us program or call it. So the first two years was 4% water, 8% sewer, and then years three and continuously, 3% increase we are on pace or on par to do that. Hopefully the assessment in future years doesn’t happen we’re seeing, but with that, we’re super comfortable,

8:55
and I think that the increases also would be the temporary water meter assembly and the back flower so something that’s that’s important that I didn’t quite realize, Matt, is that these i So we also have included on page four of the memo a list of water fees. And these are all the fees that were charged by the department. However, the only thing that is changing are the temporary water meter assembly and then the backflow maybe describe what shows are sure. So backflow prevention program that we have is it’s mandatory. It has to be the commercial level restaurants, census, fire suppression type things, it’s mandatory that they get tested twice a year, and we have to have a certified technical, tech or person that can do those tests. So that is a new, basically, program that we have implemented and we have a set last year, I think we had fees of $75 or requesting to go up 100

does 100 actually cover the cost? No, it does not. So we have, as a Select Board member, has been moving towards fees that actually reflect, that reflect the actual cost. So we looked

in the area, and we’re a little bit lower than some of the communities around us, but not too much older. Waltham, I think, is 125 or

10:29
150 or would it

10:30
be worth adjusting those 225 each?

10:34
It again, wouldn’t be we only one person going in Waltham, I think, has three. They have, like, 10 times more than we

10:44
have just just in general. So what you’re saying to prefer that we accept the list as presented. If we have these who, you

10:52
know, adjust next year, then we can, yeah, I

10:54
think we have an appetite for realistic fee structures. I think

10:57
one of the things we’re we’re seeing, we look at other towns, it’s like, is there a practice or a best practice? And other towns are potentially haven’t looked at their fee structures in a long time, or their fees are not covering their costs as well. So yeah, we have to take additional, I think, look at what our costs are and just be thoughtful about it.

11:16
So yeah, without asking to make a change now for next year, think about actual

11:21
costs. I do know that being number one in

11:25
MWA or cost is not a good place to be. Fair enough. Fair enough. Good point. We’ve got one hand raised online. Lisa parvoli,

I forgot about the fees. Could you have a similar motion for the fees for

14:13
the water? Yeah, move to accept the FY 26 water and these are these, water and sewer? No, just water. Water fees affected? Yes, effective. July 1, 2026 as presented.

14:45
Yeah, what does it move to rescind the prior vote and second, all in favor? Aye. Thank you for the

14:54
cap. Move to accept the FY 2026, water and sewer rates effective July 1. 2025 as per second. All right. Second, move to accept the

15:07
FY 26 water fees effective July 1. 2025 as presented. Second,

15:10
we briefly just talked that there will be a month on

15:19
flow. Oh, yes, just the we’ve operationalized this so that the the rates are effective July 1, but the first bills that will contain those new rates will be received in office, right? Because that is July, yeah, yeah. So there’s a there’s a bill, all

Raftelis, a national management consulting firm focusing on municipal government and utilities, to conduct a five-year rate study. The goal is to “establish financial sufficiency and viability” for the town’s water and sewer enterprise by determining the revenue needed to meet the operating expenses while retaining a healthy reserve.

Ratepayers will be facing steady rate hikes for the foreseeable future, said Raftelis vice president David Fox who told the Select Board Belmont “is very much not alone in this boat.” Nationally, water rates have been increasing by five percent and sewer by six percent for the past decade due to a litany of reasons, from inflationary pressures, repairing aging infrastructure, and declining consumption which results in a fall in revenue for municipalities and their utilities.

Even if costs were stable and you didn’t need to reinvest in the infrastructure, “you already would be facing an uphill battle with a declining revenue base” due to conservation measures and just a general drop off in usage, especially after the pandemic.

And for those communities that have been “kicking the can down the road” on rate increases, “eventually you’re going to get to a position where [Raftelis] will be meeting with a community where they are looking at a 35 percent year-to-year rate increase.

During most of the 2010s, Belmont’s water and sewer bills were some of the highest among its peer communities. With that knowledge, town officials began relying on retained earnings to keep rates unchanged to align charges with neighboring cities and towns.

But that reliance on reserves to subsidize residential water rates is no longer viable. In its analysis of water consumption and the expected increase in the assessments from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which supplies water to Belmont, Fox said the water fund’s retained earnings account is scheduled to run empty by the end of fiscal ’26.

Keeping the ratepayers in their mind

While it’s a simple equation to determine how high new rates should rise by understanding how much revenue is generated and what is needed to cover expected costs, “we don’t ever want to overshoot the rated and have the rates be artificially high,” said Fox. “We have to keep the burden of the ratepayers in the back of our mind.” 

One area of importance when calculating the new rate is maintaining a healthy retainer, the equivalent of a savings account, said Fox. The account is necessary to weather the financial storm of reduced consumption when there is a cool, wet spring or summer or a sudden capital demand on the infrastructure.

Raftelis forecast water and sewer operations and maintenance costs to increase three percent annually, with just over half of the water portion coming from MWRA assessments, while 71 percent of the sewer increase results from MWRA pricing. 

With yearly capital improvements expenditures expected at $1.36 million for water and $1.1 million for sewer and with both fund’s retained earnings line items heading towards zero in the next few years, “[a]dditional revenue is needed immediately in [fiscal ’24] to ensure [adequate] financial [growth],” wrote Fox for both water and sewer funds.

According to Fox, Belmont’s water rates should increase by four percent annually for five years. Raftelis recommends an eight percent increase in sewer rates in fiscal ’24 and ’25 before reverting to three percent increases in the remaining three years.

While rates are heading upward, the impact on residential users’ bills will be small under the Fox recommendations. The typical single-family household in the first year of the plan using approximately 200 cubic feet of water a month – the equivalent of 1,496 gallons – its annual combined water and sewer bill will increase by 4.5 percent, or $27.84, from $624.99 in fiscal ’23 to $652.84 in fiscal ’24. 

A two-family structure would see its bill rise by 5.8 percent ($76.77), and an apartment complex 6.3 percent ($158.33). The big jumps will be seen in the typical commercial site using approximately 7,500 gallons a month, where the average annual bill increases by $1,302.44 to $13,505.44. High-volume commercial users (15,000 gallons a month) can expect a $6,820.40 year-over-year hike.

When asked what conditions would be after the five years, Fox said if he was a betting man, “I’d say you’d still be looking at probably at a three percent increase every year.” With inflation to be around for longer than most people think and infrastructure needs always in the forefront of concerns, “I don’t think you’re going to get to a period after this five years whey you just don’t have an increase,” said Fox.