Concord is facing the biggest percentage increases in water and sewer rates in recent memory if the proposed city budget is approved, including hikes that would cost an average Concord homeowner around $43 more a year depending on how much water they use.

The proposed rate increases of 7.75% for water and 8% for wastewater are caused in large part by a proposal to take out bonds totaling $27.6 million to replace the pump station serving the Steeplegate Mall area and expand the sewer line running from there toward the city’s main wastewater treatment plant. This work is in preparation for the mall being replaced by more than 600 apartments in a mixed-use development making its way through the city planning process.

“Residences produce more, well, material than a mall,” said Chip Chesley, director of General Services for Concord, which includes the water and sewer departments.

The cost of upgrades would be paid by water customers, as Concord does not have a system under which developers help pay in advance for water and sewer upgrades caused by new homes or businesses coming online. Developers will have to pay a one-time connection fee when each apartment or business becomes a new customer.

The work is part of long-term goals to upgrade and expand the city’s sewer system. The two sewer treatment plants, on Hall Street and in Penacook, date to the 1970s while the sewage collection system of seven remote pump stations and 270 miles of gravity pipes is getting old.

Starting six years ago, the city began a program to refurbish the pump stations. Three have been done and one is being worked on.

“Due to the positive uptick in development the city was beginning to experience in the southeastern area of the city, funds for a master plan of the sewer systems in Loudon Road and Manchester Street were appropriated in the FY 2023 budget. The Steeplegate Mall undertaking is one of those developments.

Through the work of that master plan, the need to increase capacity in certain gravity sewers and the Steeplegate Mall pump station became apparent to meet the future demands of the development currently being contemplated in that portion of the city,” Chesley wrote in an email response to the Monitor.

Biggest rate hikes

The proposed water rate increase would be the biggest since at least 1990 and the proposed sewer rate hike is tied for second all-time, behind only an 8.2% hike in 2020 that was more than undone the next year when the city used some COVID relief funds to drop sewer rates 17%.

Water and sewer bills are both based on the amount of water used by a home or business since there’s a water meter but no sewage meter for homes. Water for outdoor irrigation can be measured separately to avoid a sewer fee and it’s wise to get swimming pools filled by private water sources to avoid what would be a huge sewer bill.

Concord, like most cities and utilities, bases rates on usage measured in CCF, an industry term meaning 100 cubic feet of water, equivalent to 748 gallons. Concord water currently costs $3.18 per CCF and sewer $5.22 per CCF, which totals to about 1.1 cents per gallon.

A home using 5,000 gallons a year spends about $550 for its water and sewer, plus a fixed meter charge of $5.85 a month for water and $9.08 a month for sewer. That adds $178 to the annual tally for a total of roughly $728 a year.

The proposed rate hikes would add about $43 to this average bill.

Note, however, that even when you include meter and sewer charges, the cheapest brands of bottled water cost at least 100 times as much as city water.

Big departments

Water and sewer make up one of the biggest departments in city operations, with some 12,000 connections from more than 170 miles of underground pipes. Unlike most other departments, however, it is not funded through the general tax rate but only through customer billing.

The 2025 budget proposal that will be considered by the City Council on Monday calls for $11.69 million in wastewater expenditures and $7.89 million in water expenditures. That includes payments, either one-time or through long-term bonds, for a host of capital projects – single projects, usually for building something, rather than expenses for continued operation. They include $550,000 for re-lining or replacing water mains on School Street and $5 million for upgrades at the Hall Street wastewater treatment plant.

The capital items, which have drawn the most attention, are triggered by the changes at Steeplegate Mall. The water lines and other facilities serving the area are sufficient, Chesley said, but the sewer connections are not.

Concord had a long history of flat or barely increasing water rates and relatively low increases in sewer rates through 2009, but since then rates have increased more sharply as the city has grown and installations have gotten old.

In the 18 years leading up to 2008, the city’s water rate rose just 27 cents but in the 15 years since then, it has risen $1.21.

The difference isn’t as great for the sewer rate but still exists: through 2008 it rose $1.11 and since then it has risen another $1.91.