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12.7.99 M.U.D. keeps water flowing at a bargain Omaha's Metropolitan Utilities District has drawn praise in the past from many people for its foresight in planning the financing of the new Platte West Water Treatment Plant, due to open in 2005. Now it's time to pay the piper, and the tune still sounds happy. M.U.D. officials said that the average customer paid $71.50 for water in 1978, when the Platte West Plant was first proposed. With the 3 percent increase M.U.D. board members approved recently, the average customer, who uses 110,000 gallons of water a year, will pay $157.41, annually beginning April 1. That may look like quite an increase -- more than twice as high! -- but it isn't what it seems. If Omahans' water bills had increased just at the rate of inflation since 1978, the average would be $193.65 a year, M.U.D. officials said. Also consider the amounts paid by residents in other communities. In Lincoln, the average water customer pays $167.01; in Des Moines, $194.19. In St. Paul, MN, it's $207.65, and in Council Bluffs, it's $237.87. All higher than the average Omahan's. The M.U.D. board has done well to put the utility on a solid financial footing in anticipation of the bills for the $268 million water treatment plant. It appears to have done so while trying to cause as little pain as possible to its ratepayers. As Board member Tom Dowd noted when he voted in favor of the increase, it's better to increase rates gradually but steadily as opposed to waiting, then hitting people with a much bigger hike. The increase, which amounts to $4.68 annually for the average customer, is reasonable and, considering the prudent plan under which M.U.D. is operating, perhaps even desirable. |
Summer water use in metro area Construction Progress Photos Water Plant Wellfield: |
