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SD1 votes unanimously to lower stormwater fees as the utility enters third year rate realignment


The Sanitation District No. 1 Board of Directors Tuesday voted unanimously to lower the utility’s stormwater rates while moving forward with the third year of a four-year sanitary sewer rate realignment.

“SD1 has taken significant steps to reduce the costs associated with both stormwater and wastewater management,” said SD1 Executive Director Adam Chaney. “We keep our customers at the center of every spending decision, and a number of cost-cutting measures implemented over the past several years have allowed us to become much more efficient with ratepayer dollars.”

The monthly stormwater fee for residential customers within SD1’s stormwater service area will decrease by 10 percent, from $5.04 to $4.54 beginning July 1, and the utility will move forward with year three of a four-year sanitary sewer rate restructure.

In 2019, the county fiscal courts approved a new residential sanitary sewer rate structure aimed at limiting the effects of declining water usage on SD1 revenues and aligning sewer rates more closely with the actual cost of providing service.

In accordance with that plan, SD1 charges a base rate for the first 2 hundred cubic feet (HCF) of wastewater treated, and a variable rate for each additional HCF of wastewater treated. Under the four-year plan, as the base rate increases, the variable rate decreases.

In July, the base rate will increase from $19 to $23 per month and the environmental surcharge, which helps fund SD1’s Clean H2O40 amended consent decree sewer overflow mitigation program, will increase from $6 per month to $7 per month. The environmental surcharge will go away upon the successful completion of the Clean H2O40 mitigation program.

To offset the increase in these fixed rates, the variable rate will decrease from $6.05 to $5.24 per HCF. The sanitary sewer rate realignment is anticipated to result in a five percent revenue increase needed to fund the obligations of SD1’s nearly $1 billion long-term capital program.

Depending on the total volume of water used, individual sanitary sewer ratepayers may see their bills increase or decrease, while all stormwater customers will see their stormwater bills go down.

The SD1 rates will now go to the Boone, Campbell and Kenton County judges executive for approval on May 21 at 3 p.m., at SD1’s main office (1045 Eaton Drive, Ft. Wright). The proposed changes would take effect on July 1 and be reflected on August bills.

Sanitation District No. 1


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