A necessary evil: Higher rates needed to operate water, wastewater systems (May 14, 2025)
BULLHEAD CITY — Bullhead City officials promised voters there would be no water rate increases for two years if they approved the takeover of the EPCOR Arizona water systems in the city.
The two years have come and gone since the city purchased EPCOR’s local assets, the promise was kept, but now it is “time to pay the piper,” said Bullhead City Utilities Director Mark Clark.
Clark and city staff conducted a work session with the Bullhead City Council last week, unveiling a proposed rate increase that they say is necessary to keep the utility from losing money.
The incremental increase, if approved, would increase water rates in each of the next three years, resulting in an eventual hike of about $20 a month to the average water bill for the city’s 20,000 households and businesses. Wastewater — sewer — rates would increase by about $10 a month over the same three-year span.
“It’s a large increase,” Clark said of the incremental approach, “and we didn’t want to shock our customers any more than we had to.”
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The Proposed New Rates
Utilities Director Mark Clark, City Manager Toby Cotter, and Assistant to the City Manager Eddie Kajirwa made a presentation full of numbers — percentages, volume, and dollars — in a workshop discussing proposed rate increases for the water and wastewater systems in Bullhead City.
For water users, the city bills residents based on a tier system: The first 3,000 gallons are charged at one base rate per 1,000 gallon unit, the next 7,000 are charged at a higher figure and Increase again after 10,000 gallons. Clark said the average household water use is about 6,000 gallons a month.
All customers also are charged a “base rate” of $14.61 per month for the Mohave system, regardless of how much water they use. Under the proposal, that rate would jump to $17.39 in 2026, $19.82 in 2027 and $22.59 […]
Source: Bill McMillen, Mohave Valley Daily News, mohavedailynews.com/news/a-necessary-evil-higher-rates-needed-to-operate-water-wastewater-systems/article_60e02d42-34fa-41cb-a44f-6f406f810c7f.html