If you are a customer of the Erie County Water Authority, your water rates are going up next year.
The good news is that they aren’t going up by as big a percentage as last year, which represented the highest one-year increase in decades.
The bad news is that ECWA rates are going up by the second-highest percentage increase in decades.
Customers of the Erie County Water Authority will see their water rates and fees rise by 12% next year. Water authority officials blame the increase on major spikes in the prices of chemicals, power and contracts with third-party contractors.
Instead of water usage rates and fixed fees rising by 12%, they are rising by 9%. That applies to both residential and commercial customers.
By contrast, the Niagara Falls Water Board just announced that after two years of rising rates for costs passed onto customers, its rates for next year will remain flat.
The Erie County Water Authority is responsible for providing clean water to more than 550,000 users throughout most of Erie County, except for the City of Buffalo, which has a water rate that is even higher then the ECWA’s.
Authority officials attributed the bulk of the increased costs to ongoing price hikes for chemicals and higher rates for outside contractors, plus ongoing…
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