BOUNTIFUL -- The Bountiful City Council approved a long-expected 10 percent fee hike for both water and power services at its Tuesday night meeting.
Both rate increases will take effect July 1.
The water rate increases directly reflect supplier rate increases, Bountiful City Manager Tom Hardy said. Costly EPA requirements have caused water treatment costs to rise, and in some cases the price of water supplied to Bountiful has increased by 50 percent.
Luckily, customers will not see an increase of that magnitude, according to Hardy, because Bountiful's other water sources "water down" or mitigate the increase to 10 percent. The city receives some 60 percent of its water from underground aquifers via a system of eight wells and 14 tanks that hold close to 18 million gallons of water.
Most of the wells are 300-750 feet deep. The water currently being pumped is near 100 feet below the surface. The water is pure enough that it requires no chlorination.
Power rate increases are a result of a power production drop at hydroelectric facilities. Bountiful City Light & Power, a municipal utility owned by the residents of Bountiful, receives 60 percent of its power from hydroelectric sources, mainly fed by water from the Colorado Basin.
The Colorado Basin, a geographic area that covers parts of Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Califor-nia and some of Mexico, is still deep in drought despite a "somewhat" normal water year.
The precipitation in the basin keeps the reservoirs of Glen Canyon Dam, Flaming Gorge, Pineview, and Echo reservoirs and others full. These dams supply much of Bountiful City Light & Power's energy.
Two of the dams, Glen Canyon and Flaming Gorge, which together supply most of Bountiful's water-generated electricity, have been hardest hit by the drought. Echo and Pineview are faring much better.
The drought has led to a decrease in water output from the dams. This means the generators won't spin at full capacity, reducing power output and raising the cost per unit of power, necessitating the fee hike.
"Within three years, there's the potential of seeing Lake Powell (Glen Canyon Dam) being unable to generate power," Hardy said. "It's not like Pineview or Echo where a couple of good (rain) years will (fill the reservoir). Lake Powell is big and has a lot of reservoir to fill."
As of June 1, 2004, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reported Lake Powell at 113 feet below "full pool" level, and is at 43 percent of "live capacity."
Hardy explained that it could take 15-20 years of average rainfall to refill the dam to capacity.
Bountiful's $48,424,745 budget, about $6 million less than last year's budget, includes increases for one full-time police officer and a full-time, winter storm water employee. With the additional two employees, Bountiful employs 187 people.