Surface water rate will go to $1.42 from 76 cents per 1,000 gallons. The money from the fee will go to the city's required conversion to surface water and the construction of a treatment plant for it.
In order to offset this change, residential solid waste rates will decrease about $1.63 because the city is switching to an automated waste collection system. Water and wastewater rates will not change.
Other user fees -- such as facility rental charges, permits and rental registration licenses -- will also increase about 4.9 percent in January. These fees typically are adjusted annually, but since the city didn't increase fees in 2011 due to the recession, it raised the fee based on the two-year CPI change.
