Wednesday, October 11, 2023–6:50 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
City of Rome water and sewer customers will continue to enjoy savings on their bills for at least another year or more.
On Thursday, it was announced that a water and sewer rate study will be postponed until next year.
The Rome City Commission had increased rates to pay for a new reverse osmosis facility to filter Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, and other chemicals from its drinking water supply on the Oostanaula River. Rome also filed suit in 2019 against several chemical and carpet manufacturers upstream to recover those costs. Once settlements were reached in that civil action, it was announced that water and sewer rates would be rolled back to where they were in December 2018. That rollback took effect in September and the average customer is expected to see savings on their bills of around $10 to $15.
The City of Rome is required to do a rate study every two years. When rates were rolled back, it was generally understood that there could be a future increase. However, during Thursday’s Rome Water and Sewer Committee meeting, it was announced the study would be delayed for a couple of reasons.
“We will continue to share the extended savings with our customers,” said Assistant Rome Water and Sewer Services Director John Boyd. “With the interest that we’re earning, we can ride this for another twelve months. So, we are proposing to hold out and do the rate study in the summer of 2024 and be ready to implement in 2025.”
Boyd added the rate study will likely include a new component.
“We will also want to evaluate what we classify as commercial meter installations of 2 inches and above,” he said. “Those have not been looked at since 2009, and everybody knows things have gone way up since then.”