Honolulu Council to review sewer fee hike measure

A city-initiated measure that calls for a more than 124% increase to sewer fees for Honolulu’s average single-family residential customer over a 10-year period comes under City Council review this week.

If approved, Bill 60 would see all of the city’s rate- paying customers have a total fee hike of 115% over the decade-long time frame, according to the city.

Starting July 1, the city’s plan to increase sewer fees will affect single-family residential customers — who consume 9,000 gallons of water a month toward sewer use, like flushing the toilet — as well as all other customer classes served by the city and county’s sewer system.

Overall, the city’s proposed sewer rate increases will start with a 9% annual adjustment for the first six years, followed by smaller increases of 8%, 7%, 6% and 5% in the final four years, officials said.

Currently, the city says, an average single-family residential sewer bill totals approximately $110.89 a month. By July 1 that bill would rise to $122.05 a month.

And by July 2034, the city predicts, the average monthly sewer bill will be $248.53 — a 124.1% increase from the current average sewer bill. Rate hikes for commercial or nonresidential customers mirror the increase to residents, city officials say.

The Council is expected to hold the first of three readings for Bill 60 on Thursday.

“Sewer fees are based in (city laws) and can only be updated through Council legislative action — the passage of a bill,” city Department of Environmental Services Deputy Director Michael O’Keefe told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email. “Approval of the new sewer rates in Bill 60 will ensure ENV receives necessary funding for ongoing operation and maintenance, and critical sewer infrastructure projects, including required projects under ENV’s 2010 consent decree.”

The measure, if approved, would also adopt other miscellaneous amendments.

Among them, Bill 60 would revise city laws to include accessory dwelling units to the list of residential units that can be charged for city sewer services. The measure would also impose higher fees to private waste haulers transporting wastewater to any city-owned facility for disposal.

But the city’s proposed rate hike has drawn criticism.

“Anytime you hike up anything in retail, the prices go up,” Retail Merchants of Hawaii President Tina Yamaki told the Star- Advertiser by phone. “And it’s hard for us; there’s so many things going up.”

She noted that Hawaii Gas — which has an application before the state Public Utilities Commission, which regulates the company on six islands — is also seeking an average statewide revenue increase of about 17.7% in utility rates, equivalent to approximately a 2.5%-per-year increase since its last rate case in 2018, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Shipping is also going up and just costs all over,” Yamaki said. “So for a lot of the smaller, local businesses, it’s a hard hit for them.”

She added the pandemic is still affecting retailers, too.

“People think, ‘Oh, COVID has gone, it’s such a long time ago,’ but especially for some of these local businesses, the debt is still there for the loans they took out,” Yamaki said. “And now they have to start paying them back.”

Conversely, city officials say the proposed sewer fee hikes are necessary to support ongoing wastewater operations and maintenance efforts, as well as a $10.1 billion capital improvement program for Oahu’s wastewater collection and treatment system that is planned through 2040.

The fee hikes also will fund projects to prepare the city’s wastewater infrastructure for climate change and sea-level rise, city officials say.

The work includes a $2.5 billion upgrade to the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant as required under a 2010 federal consent decree.

The last time the city raised residential sewer fees was in 2016 — an 8% increase at the time — which goes to self-fund the city’s waste collection system, which consists of about 2,100 miles of pipes, 72 wastewater pump stations and associated force mains.

It also collects and treats nearly 100 million gallons of wastewater daily, according to the city.

“It’s important to note that the wastewater (division) — the sewer enterprise, which is the collection system, the pump stations and treatment plants — is a self-sufficient entity,” ENV Director Roger Babcock said during a recent news conference at the Sand Island treatment plant. “We only receive funds from sewer fees; we can’t receive funds from (the city’s) general fund,” which typically funds city salaries and operational expenses.

“What that means, though, is sewer fees have to match expenditures,” Babcock said. “We haven’t had a fee increase since 2016. That’s 8-1/2 years already.”

He said operational and equipment costs have increased since that time.

“We just can’t wait any longer,” he added. “In addition to that, we need to complete some projects that have been mandated by the federal consent decree that started in 2010 with different parts.”

Babcock noted the last part — to upgrade the Sand Island treatment facility — must be completed by 2035.

According to the city, sewer charges consist of two parts, a base charge and a sewer volume charge, which is based on a customer’s water consumption.

Base charges represent the city’s fixed cost associated with operating and maintaining the municipal sewer system, the city said.

According to a city news release, “ENV will be adjusting the basis for how sewer fees are calculated to give customers greater control over the amount of their bill. Sewer bills include a fixed (or base) charge, currently about 70% of the bill, and volumetric charge based on water use, currently about 30% of the bill.”

“Over the next four years, these percentages will gradually shift to a 50/50, fixed-to-volumetric ratio,” the news release states. “This shift to a greater amount of the fee based upon water usage will allow customers to pay significantly lower fees if they reduce their water use.”

According to Babcock, “If you conserve water, your bill will go up much less, but if you continue to use a lot of water, your bill will go up a lot.”

He added, “This applies to all customers.”

“The customer that uses a little less than 8,000 gallons per month will see the exact 115% overall increase,” Babcock said.

Households earning less than 80% of the area median income — which in 2024 is $111,360 for a four-person family — could qualify for a monthly credit of $20 to $25 on their fixed sewer charge, the city said.

The Council meeting begins at 10 a.m. inside City Council Chambers.