By james art BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – The Birmingham Water Board approved a preliminary budget plan Wednesday that includes a 4.9 percent rate increase, a change to the utility’s rate structure and $10 million to begin purchasing new meters , needed to move the utility to automated meter reading as early as 2028.
Under the proposed 2025 budget, what Water Works considers the “average” customer with a residential bill who uses 6 CCF of water each month would pay about $2.14 more per month. The company also lowered the threshold for its top rate from 16 CCF to 13 CCF, but said the move was made to spread the increase more evenly.
“Each block will have a slight increase, so no one will miss this opportunity,” said BWWB Interim GM Darryl Jones. “It’s just that if you’re over 12 you’re actually going to get a bit better because the old structure – anything over 15 was an even higher percentage, so by bringing it down to 12 it allows us to change and share some of the these increases throughout our rate structure. So it’s a fair and equitable way for all customers to share the rates equally as they go up.”
Here’s a comparison of the old and new rate structure:
| 2024 Tariff Structure | Course Structure for 2025 | ||
| 0-3 CCF $2.86 per CCF | 0-3 CCF $2.96 per CCF | ||
| 3-15 CCF $4.74 per CCF | 3-12 CCF $4.91 per CCF | ||
| >15 CCF $8.29 per CCF | >12 CCF $8.58 per CCF |
By comparison, the BWWB raised home prices by 4.8% in 2024, 3.9% in 2022 and 2023. It did not raise rates in 2019, but raised rates by 3.9% in 2020 and 2021.
The new operating budget of $142 million is $5 million more than last year, while the capital budget jumps from $83 million in 2024 to a projected $115 million in 2025. $10 million of that will be spent to start the transition of the utility to automated meter reading until the purchase of new meters begins, which will eventually have to replace all approximately 215,000 bit meters. This process will begin with the purchase and installation of some of these meters over the next year as old meters break down or are replaced.
“We’re going to start installing some of these meters that are AMI compliant, which means they have the infrastructure built into the meter to be able to transmit the information,” Jones said. “We won’t have the host part yet, but we want to get started on the whole project.”
Water Works’ new interim executive staff told the board Wednesday that the utility needs to upgrade its SAP software program that manages several key functions, including billing, over the next several years, and will need to do so as the automated metering program is launched infrastructure (AMI). who will work with him. Given the scope of the two projects, the board learned Wednesday that the system currently expects to start automated meter reading for all of its residential customers sometime in 2028 if the current schedule holds.
Shelia Tyson, a Jefferson County commissioner, told the board Wednesday that that day can’t come soon enough for her constituents.
“I want to thank the water board for being serious about starting this smart meter program,” Tyson said. “Because I know the previous board failed to launch it. But I’d like to urge you to go ahead and get started, because again we’re getting calls about $3,000 and $4,000 water bills coming into people’s mailboxes. I don’t know what the problem is, but I know that such bills should not go to a resident. I want to thank you for starting the program and I want to urge you to go ahead and start the program for real. Because citizens suffer from this and the increase in the bills they receive in the mail.”
The water board also learned Wednesday how dramatic the improvements have been in the billing department since interim GM Darryl Jones brought back former GM Mac Underwood and several other former BWWB employees on a temporary basis to evaluate and overhaul its billing and customer service operations.
The company said it had to assess 8,430 consumer accounts in July, or about 4.3% of the system’s 197,000 current accounts. The system in July had also thrown out 25,230 “implausible,” or readings that fall outside of what the system considers normal parameters for that account. By September, that number had dropped to 1,263 estimated accounts and 13,121 implausible.
“A lot of things have changed,” says Jones. “We were able to get our vehicles in. At one point we were over 14 vehicles down for our readers and support staff. we have our vehicles on site. The efficiency of what happens is greatly improved and that is the main driver of what happened. We will continue to go in this direction, we will continue to make improvements. We will make sure that when customers receive their bill, it is accurate. We also want them to have a current account every month, that’s our goal.”
The rate increase, new rate structure and budget proposals will go before a public hearing on Nov. 4 at 5:30 p.m. before the board votes on them at a meeting following that hearing.
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