By WECT Staff | January 20, 2021 at 5:56 AM EST – Updated January 20 at 5:56 AM
BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) – Water rates in Brunswick County could be going up after county commissioners met on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of a rate increase.
It’s possible customers could see a 30% increase, according to the county manager.
So why would rates jump so drastically? Well, it’s all about the reverse osmosis plant the county has planned. In the wake of the GenX contamination into the Cape Fear River, water providers have looked for ways to help provide clean water to customers, an RO plant can potentially do that, but it’s not cheap.
But during a pandemic, when so many people have struggled to make ends meet, the rate hike could be yet another burden, yet, commissioners believe that it is the time to take care of the issue.
“A reasonable person would say, gosh you have got a number of different issues to take care of and so we understand that this issue is not resulting from COVID, it resulted from something else. The timing of it just plays out to where we are moving into a budget year and now is the time to take care of issues like this,” Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Randy Thompson said.
The vote on the rate hike is expected to take place in June, and the new rates would be implemented in January of next year.
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