Maryville finalizes water, sewer rate increases
MARYVILLE, Mo. — The Maryville City Council on Monday finalized water and sewer rate increases that will take effect in January and show on customers’ February bills.
Water rates will increase by 50% and sewer rates will increase by 2%. According to city documents, the typical Maryville resident’s bill will rise from $69.95 per month this year to $83.40 per month next year.
City officials have said the increases are necessary primarily to pay for a new $52.1 million water treatment plant project that is set to break ground later this month. To pay for that project, the city secured financing through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ State Revolving Fund loan program, which requires that water rates produce enough revenue to cover 110% of operations and maintenance costs and requires that the city establish a dedicated replacement account for future infrastructure needs.
About $1 million per year of the revenue from the rate increases will be set aside for those regular infrastructure improvements, starting with water main replacements throughout the city. Replacing existing two-inch mains with four-inch ones is necessary, City Manager Ryan Heiland said, because, among other things, modern fire trucks pump so much water that “they can blow those lines.” Currently, the city does not have a regular replacement schedule for water infrastructure needs, which results in haphazard replacements whenever funds are available or emergencies arise.
The rate increases can also come with some sticker shock because it’s not the first time in the past decade that the city has sharply raised the rates. After not raising rates for many years, the city found in 2021 that its water and sewer fund was quickly drying up because rates had not kept up with expenses.
“I would say, when I first started nine or 10 years ago, we had no water increases for probably 10 years, I would say,” said council member Benjamin Lipiec, the council’s longest-serving active member. “And we looked at increasing them, and COVID came and we made the decision, for the benefit of the community and the citizens in it, that we weren’t raising rates. Well, then the next year after COVID, we did a (water rate study) and we were way behind.”
To bring rates back up to speed, the city raised water rates by 13% and sewer rates by 28% in 2022 and again in 2023 while warning that the increases to pay for the water treatment plant were still to come.
Still, city officials said the rates are in line with other cities across the state.
“Maryville is not isolated,” said council member Erin Allen. “This is a trend, this is happening in lots of places all over the state, all over the Midwest, all over the country, in water and in sewer and in electric.”
The council first laid out the plan to raise rates in March. Under the plan tentatively agreed to during that March work session, the city would raise water rates by another 50% in 2028, followed by 2% increases each year from 2029-2035.
Last month, the city set up a website, maryvillewater.org, to explain the rate increases. The site also includes a bill calculator to help estimate individual increases.
