Akron City Council tonight will receive
legislation that would raise sewer rates. Rates are based upon several factors including
average per customer usage, the average flow to the water pollution control station and
actual expenditures needed in the past year to maintain the sewer system.The
administration’s request is that rates for Akron customers increase by 2.2%, or an
average of 63-cents per month. Because the City of Akron has customers outside its city
limits, residential rates would increase for those customers as well by 2.2% or less,
based upon each community’s cost factors. Rate increases would be effective April 1.
The City raised sewer rates in 2003 by 6% to begin remedying a $14 million portion
of the combined sewer overflow problem. Akron has been in negotiations with the
Environmental Protection Agency to alleviate the problem system wide. The cost of that
unfunded and federally-mandated fix has been estimated at $377 million.
Combined sewer overflow problems plague most urban areas in the country. The problem
arises when sanitary sewer water overflows into rivers and streams during heavy rain
