By james art 
For the sixth year in a row, Birmingham Water Works customers are likely to see a rate increase in 2025. The proposed 4.9% increase comes as some residents continue to complain that they receive excessive water bills or no bills at all.
The Birmingham Water Board approved a preliminary budget plan Wednesday that includes a rate increase and funding to begin purchasing the meters needed to switch to an automated meter reading system, a change scheduled to happen in 2028.
A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held on Monday, November 4th at 5:30pm at the BWW main office, at 3600 First Ave. N.
BWW is Alabama’s largest water system, serving approximately 770,000 people in Birmingham and Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount and Walker counties. The proposed budget consists of an operating budget of $142 million — an increase of $137 million in 2024 — and a capital budget of $115 million — an increase of $83 million in 2024, according to a WBRC report. The capital budget includes $10 million for automated meters.
A residential customer using the average amount of water – 6 CCF or 4,488 gallons per month – would pay $2.14 more per month under the proposed rate increase. That would be in addition to a 3.49 percent increase in volumetric and base sewer charges that went into effect Oct. 1 for joint customers of BWW and the Jefferson County Sewer System.
While BWW handles billing these joint customers, the Jefferson County Commission sets sewer rates.
BWW’s 2025 budget proposal also includes a change to the utility’s three-tier billing structure. The water consumption threshold for the highest tier will drop from 15 CCF to 12 CCF.
Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Tyson, who addressed the BWW board at its meeting Wednesday, said Thursday that the board should not raise rates until the billing issues are fixed. “How can you add fees and still not fix problems?” she asked.
Tyson said residents have been complaining about unreasonable water bills for 15 years, and she has received at least four phone calls a week from constituents since she recently started handling complaints.
“The housing bill on a two-bedroom house shouldn’t be $1,000 or $3,000,” Tyson said. “It’s just common sense. Whoever is handling the billing needs to pull it out and put it in the troubleshooting basket and let someone figure out why this bill is so high.
A charging system mechanism for this was discussed at Wednesday’s meeting, according to a WBRC report. The system marks “implausible” – accounts outside the normal parameters for their respective accounts. The number of implausibles fell from 25,230 in July to 13,121 in September, the utility said.
In at least one case, the utility had implausible readings on a bill, but did not notify or bill the customer. Birmingham resident Claire Ahalt ended up with a bill for $7,000, although the charges were later cleared. She hired a plumber who found a huge leak under her front yard.
Tyson said some constituents who have called her about extremely high bills say they were told by water company officials that their meter had not been reported and the amount they were billed was a “default.” She said she started receiving complaints about missing accounts three or four years ago. These residents tell her BWW staff that she is instructing them to pay a monthly amount that they have paid in the past.
When water companies are unable to read meters every month, they often use estimated billing instead. BWW also reported that the number of expected bills fell from 8,430 in July to 1,263 in September.
Those improvements were attributed at Wednesday’s management meeting to interim BWW general manager Darryl Jones, who began filling the role in June after former general manager Michael Johnson retired.
“We’re going to continue to make improvements,” Jones told WBRC. “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 is our goal.”
Tyson said she sent about 15 of the bills to her BWW constituents on Wednesday, along with questions about those bills. She said BWW officials told her they would look into the bills and get back to her.
She thanked the BWW board of directors for starting the automated meter program and urged them to move forward quickly. Smart meters would prevent most of the billing problems residents experience, she said.
“I’m almost certain they will be allowed,” Tyson said. “We know that if there are automatic meters, at least all consumer meters will be accounted for.”
In response to the current schedule of an automated system starting in 2028, Tyson said: “They have to solve their billing problem before then.”
She said she will personally contact constituents who have contacted her about their water bills and encourage them to attend the Nov. 4 public hearing. She is developing a plan to reach other voters, perhaps with a robocall.
“It’s the silent voices, the people who really don’t have a voice, and the people who really just don’t know what to do — they’re too old or sick — they need to be at this meeting,” she said.
The cost of plumbing in Birmingham is increasing
- 2025 – 4.9% (proposed)
- 2024 – 4.8%
- 2023 – 3.9%
- 2022 – 3.9%
- 2021 – 3.9%
2020 – 3.9%