Water, sewer rates expected to go up in Henderson

Barring unexpected resistance tonight from Mayor Andy Hafen and the Henderson City Council, water and sewer users in Henderson can expect to see an increase in their monthly utility bills starting in January -- enough to raise revenues by nearly $13 million by the end of 2015.

The $3.2 million annual increase means the average water and sewer customer would pay about $2 more each month in 2012 and an additional $2 per month each year through 2015, acting Utility Services Director Barney Rabold said.

Rabold said the proposed increase has "very little" to do with the $94 million Southwest Water Reclamation Facility, which opened with fanfare at St. Rose Parkway near the Las Vegas Beltway last week.

Instead, he said a profound decrease in revenue generated by new construction -- and new customers -- has put the utility in a tight spot.

Henderson has about 85,000 water and sewer accounts that each use an average of 15,000 gallons and get billed nearly $58 each month, he said. That average will be $60 in 2012 and incrementally increase to $66 per month by 2015.

The city has not escaped the effects of the housing collapse and economic meltdown any better than its citizens have.

In 2007, Henderson's Utility Services department collected more than $17 million in hook-up and other development charges. That figure plummeted to $2.3 million in 2011, while the city's debt obligations on $1.5 billion in water and sewer assets remained, Rabold said.

The city also has to maintain those assets, which include a water treatment plant, two wastewater treatment facilities, thousands of miles of pipe and about 11,000 fire hydrants.

Rabold said the city did not have buyers' remorse over building the satellite wastewater treatment plant.

"Ten years ago when we planned it, it was needed," he said. "In hindsight, maybe, but at the time, we had to do that to accommodate growth."

Still, he said the city has been "very sensitive" to its customers.

"We looked carefully at how it was going to affect people," he said. "We understand the stress our community is under."

Construction of the plant began in March 2008 after roughly nine years of planning and public outreach, during a prolonged period of rapid growth in Nevada, particularly in the southern half of the state.

But former Utility Services Director Dennis Porter conceded in an interview in early September that the project might have been canceled had the economy tanked a year earlier than it did.

The plant was built to deal with increased demand from new residents and from new golf courses that use the city's reclaimed water to keep the grass green.

But growth came to a virtual halt shortly before construction began, and several plans for new golf courses were scrapped, Porter said at the time.

Contact reporter Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.