June 30--MWRA ratepayers will see their combined water and sewer rates rise an average of $36 next year after agency officials thisafternoon approved a 5.3 percent rate hike.

MWRA executive director Douglas MacDonald said much of the $18 million increase would help pay for the $670 million 17.6 mile MetroWest water tunnel that will eventually supply water to the approximately 2.5 million MWRA customers in eastern Massachusetts. MWRA rates have risen an average of 3.3 percent each of the last six years.

"Nobody welcomes a rate increase, but better we should proceed in a
sensible way to get the system fixed," MacDonald said after the board
approved the increase 7-2.  "The problem with MWRA is that so many of the systems are invisible.  But they still cost money, and this 5.3 percent is
what it takes to pay the costs."

MacDonald said the water system, particularly the Hultman Aquaduct carrying water from the Wauchusett and Quabbin reserviors, has needed work for 50 years. He said the increase would have been much larger - perhaps in the range of the 7 percent hike originally requested - if the Legislature hadn't proposed to put up about $48 million in taxpayer dollars to help keep rates low.  The exact figure is yet to be determined because
House-Senate negotiators are still working out a budget compromise
for the next fiscal year.

MWRA officials have already compromised, cutting $14.2 million out of
the authority's budget at the request of the watchdog MWRA Advisory Board. The authority will have a $423.4 million operating budget for the
coming fiscal year.

Rate increases are based on 1998 community usage.  Next year, Boston
residents, for example, will see their collective payments rise by about $3
million, while Marblehead's payments will actually drop about $300,000. 

MWRA board chairman and state Environmental Affairs Secretary Robert
Durand compared the state's rate-reduction contribution to the statewide School Building Assistance program or local road and bridge projects funded by all taxpayers.

"People in Boston help pay for roads and bridges in the western part of the
state.  We're all in this together," Durand said.  "This is spreading the cost."
 
MWRA spokesman Thomas Lee also reiterated the authority's request that
consumers limit water use between 6-10 am and 6-10 pm.  He said that while the reservoirs are about 95 percent full, the hot weather has pushed demand up so high that the water pressure in the pipes could drop for higher
elevation communities like Brookline, Everett and Saugus.
 

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