PORT ANGELES — Residents and businesses could pay as much as $174 more annually in 2013 for electric service, garbage collection and stormwater treatment after the City Council approved a suite of utility rate increases Tuesday night.
City Council members voted 4-2, with Mayor Cherie Kidd and Councilwoman Brooke Nelson opposed and Councilman Patrick Downie absent, to approve rate increases that would raise monthly bills by 6.5 percent, or $14.54, for customers receiving weekly garbage and recycling pickup, and 4.9 percent, or $11.09, for those who get their garbage and recycling picked up every other week.
The approved rate increases, which go into effect Jan. 7, deviate from those originally recommended by Port Angeles city staff that would have separated the increases for weekly and every-other-week garbage pickup customers by about 30 cents.
The difference comes in the City Council’s preference for only increasing the charge for weekly garbage pickup customers, not those who receive garbage service every other week.
Electricity rates
Under the approved changes, electricity rates will go up an average of $3.59 per month, a 3.8 percent increase, with the base rate staying at $15.75 per month and the per-kilowatt-hour charge increasing 6.9 percent.
Additionally, residents receiving every-other-week garbage pickup will continue to pay $19.75 per month for that service, while weekly customers will go from paying $27.20 per month to $30.65 per month, a 12.7 percent increase.
At the public hearing preceding City Council discussion on the rate increases, Port Angeles resident Steve Nordwell spoke in favor of increasing rates for only weekly garbage pickup and upping consumption charges for electricity, saying these actions would lead to saving electricity and producing less waste.
“If it costs more to use more power, [residents] are going to conserve more,” Nordwell said.
The suite of rate changes includes a $4.50-per-month increase in wastewater-treatment charges for residential customers whose monthly water consumption exceeds 430 cubic feet per month.
This rate will go from $64.40 per month to $68.90, a 7 percent increase.
Study funding
This charge, included in a utility-rate-increases discussion earlier this month and backed down from an original increase of $5.75 per month, is meant to pay for a study that will determine what sort of contaminants are present in Port Angeles Harbor and what must be done to remove them.
The wastewater rate increases — set to take effect Jan. 1, 2013, and expire June 30, 2015 — will pay for the city’s estimated $1 million share of the study, which the state Department of Ecology has said the city is responsible for.
Ecology has named the city, Nippon Paper Industries, Georgia Pacific LLC and the Port of Port Angeles as “potential liable parties” in the contamination of Port Angeles Harbor.
At Tuesday’s meeting, City Manager Dan McKeen said the city most likely will be responsible for 25 percent of the total cost of the study.
The city could be on the hook for a smaller share, though, if the results of the study show less than 25 percent of the harbor’s contamination came from the city, City Attorney Bill Bloor said.
Bloor said the other potential liable parties would be expected to pay the city back for 15 percent of the study costs, for example, if the study found only 10 percent of the harbor sediment contamination came from the city.
“They would write us a check, or if they don’t write a check, we [could] sue them,” Bloor said in response to City Councilman Max Mania’s question about how the city would be paid back.
Grant monies
McKeen said the city could be eligible for grants from the Department of Ecology to help pay for the study, though the $4.50-more-per-month charge presumes no funds from grant sources.
The $4.50-more-per-month amount could be decreased later on if grants are secured, McKeen added.
Kidd said she will work with McKeen and Ecology staff to secure grants, though she spoke against the wastewater rate increase in principal, calling it a “DOE [Ecology] defense fund.”
“To give a DOE tax on top of utilities seems like too much to ask for our citizens,” Kidd said.
The increases to stormwater treatment and transfer station charges are:
■ A $3-per-month increase, up 50 percent, in 2013 for stormwater treatment.
■ A 7.2 percent increase per ton on transfer station charges for collection companies and self-haulers. Self-haulers would pay $141.95 per ton, up from $132.40, while collection companies would pay $116.10 per ton, up from $108.30.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.