TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucson Water customers who live outside city limits in unincorporated Pima County received their first water bill since the raise that was passed by Tucson City Council in June.
They decided on a 19 percent increase which would add a little over six dollars to each family's water bill starting in August.
The City says the reason for the increase is because extended service areas require larger and more complex infrastructure, leading to higher operations and maintenance costs.
KGUN 9 spoke with west side neighbor Sam Wesch who lives near Cardinal and Valencia a few months ago, and he said he wasn’t worried too much about the increase.
We followed up with him after getting his bill and he still feels the same.
“Our bill went up three percent. The water portion of the bill went from $89 to $92, so at that level I’m not really that concerned," Wesch said.
He used about 14 Ccfs which equals to about 10,500 gallons of water in the past month compared to 6,700 last year.
One Ccf equals 748 gallons.
Wesch says he’s not sure what is causing the usage to go up.
“So we’re taking a hard look this week at our irrigation schedules, gonna check for any leaks, possibly bring in a plumber just to make sure that we’re not wasting water anywhere," Wesch said.
He says if the increase stays at this level, he can live with that.
"Understandably it's gonna cost more to pump water uphill and it's going to cost more to provide it to some out of city customers. I worry about what could happen five, 10, 20 years down the road, but I don't think they could give me answers on that right now," Wesch said.
On the other side of town on the east side near Tanque Verde is Paul Bucky.
He went to the city council meeting in June expressing his concerns, saying he doesn’t believe it’s fair to charge him and his neighbors more just because they live outside city limits.
“Said no our bills are gonna be, you know, hundreds of dollars more, you know, for people that live out with an acre or five acre parcels," Bucky said.
Bucky was right. He has an acre of land with plenty of trees, plants and a pool that need water — so his bill skyrocketed.
“We had a bill that was over $78, almost 80 dollars with taxes, more than it would have been with the old rates," Bucky explained.
According to Tucson Water, the average unincorporated residential customer uses around 6,000 gallons per month (8 Ccfs), but Paul Bucky used about 30,000 (40 Ccfs) in the last month.
Tucson Water said in a statement, “So with a tiered rate structure that charges more as a customer ends up in higher usage tiers. The charges that this customer is experiencing are reflective of his discretionary use of the community’s drinking water supply and the charges associated with that level of use.”
Bucky says it’s interesting they lump watering the landscape with drinking water use, because he’s just trying to do his part and help keep Tucson green.
He even purchased the $5 trees available from Tucson Electric Power (TEP) to enhance the environment and conserve energy.
“Our goal too is to keep the things green. I mean Tucson is a green city, a tree city and so to do that in this kind of a drought you really have to water these mesquite trees, you know at least a couple times a year, and you gotta go down about three feet," Bucky said.
He says when that bill comes in, it could be up to $150 more based on what the rates used to be.
Bucky says he does his best to save water by having an irrigation system in place and catches the runoff when it rains, but still believes residents living outside city limits should not pay more than others.
“Go back to equal water rates for all people or if they said it's gonna be $6 a person, well then do surcharges. Six bucks if you live in the county for that differential water rate," Bucky said. "Charge us because we're so many miles out to help maintain the system. But if you want to start funding all these other programs, you know, there's just as wealthy living in Midtown, even wealthier than a lot of us out here."
To learn more about the adjusted water rates and fees, visit Tucson Water.
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Tucson water rates could soon be adjusted again
Water rates to be increased for Tucson Water customers in unincorporated Pima County
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Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
