The Honolulu City Council has proposed a six-year sewer fee hike plan for Oʻahu that incentivizes water savings, instead of the original 10-year plan.
The City and County of Honolulu’s initial requested sewer fee schedule for the next decade would eventually increase sewer fees by 115%, but on Tuesday, the council’s Budget Committee decided to delete mention of sewer rates from 2032 to 2035 in Bill 60.
The shorter schedule would allow the council to reevaluate the fee hikes, instead of trying to decide how to fund projects years from now based on anticipated changes in federal regulations.
“We're anticipating regulatory changes, but we don't know that. This is why we need to have five years or less on the increase, because we're now assuming what will come in the future,” said Councilmember Andria Tupola.
The city’s proposed 115% hike would increase the median monthly sewer fee for a single-family home that uses 6,000 gallons of water from about $100 to $204 over its 10-year plan.
The new six-year plan’s annual increases — 6%, 7.5%, 8.5% and 9% for each of the last three years — are less than the city’s initial proposal of a 9% increase every year for the first six years.
The Budget Committee also amended the ratio of “fixed” to “volumetric” fees in Bill 60. Fixed fees are the same for all sewer users in the same category, while volumetric fees are dependent on water use. The two together make up the monthly fee.
Currently, 70% of the city’s Department of Environmental Services revenue comes from fixed fees, but it proposed a 50-50 split to encourage water conservation.
The committee moved Bill 60 so that fixed fees are 40% of the department’s revenue, with the rest made up of volumetric fees.
“Folks who are using as little water as possible, who are trying to do the right thing, would end up paying less because they're not using as much water,” said Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, who chairs the committee.
“The purpose of this was to make the system a little bit more equitable to incentivize conservation. And for the very highest water users, I do believe that they need to be paying a little bit more for the privilege of using that much water.”
The sewer fee increases would fund certain wastewater treatment upgrades the city is required to make because of a 2010 consent decree the city entered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Councilmembers have tried to avoid such high sewer fee increases on Oʻahu residents.
Oʻahu sewer fees haven’t changed since 2016, but the Department of Environmental Services needs $10.1 billion between now and 2040 for capital improvement projects.
The largest of those projects is the consent decree’s Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade, which costs an estimated $1.8 billion and must be completed by 2035.
Bill 60 is scheduled for a third reading by the full council on June 4.
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