By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The city of St. Joseph will see its sewer rates rise next year by three percent and rise another three percent next year.
The rise in sewer rates comes after a study was presented to the St. Joseph City Council on sewer rates conducted by Burns & McDonnell.
District 3 Councilmember Andrew Trout says the rise in rates has to do with safety and federal regulations, such as phosphorus regulations coming in
"Things that are pollutants and carcinogens and bad things that shouldn't be dumped into the Missouri River, because we're on the river, we have to make a ot of changes over the course of time," Trout says on the KFEQmunnity show. "And there's a lot of things coming up and there's a lot of things that have recently been put into place to get the water even cleaner, to make sure that it's clean for the river to keep the health of the Missouri River going."
Trout says it also has to do with the cost-of-living increase, with costing more to buy the chemicals and equipment needed, that made the increase necessary as well.
Trout calls the proposal a "necessary evil"
"Nobody wants to raise rates of anything, but it has to happen," Trout explains. "And most of those dollars going into that increase are for federal requirements that are either new or equipment that has to be replaced to keep up with the standards we currently have."
Trout says some equipment that needs to be replaced or repaired is already being worked on, but says that nothing starts with thousands anymore, it starts with millions to purchase
Trout says the study from Burns & McDonnell showed many factors that showed the need for the increase, including equipment that's worn out
"Equipment that we're having to patch together that's not staying patched as long as it used to stay," Trout says. "So, a big portion of that is equipment that's failing that needs to be replaced, and some of it's in the process of being replaced now, a piece of it is new federal regulations like the phosphate regulations."
The city states the rise would help the city keep up with the rising cost of state and federal regulations.
The Burns & McDonnell study reports the average St. Joseph sewer bill is $65.70 a month while the average bill in Omaha is $60.12 and the average bill in Kansas City is $79.01.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.