Five years ago, Mayor Shirley Franklin warned Atlanta that sewer rates would triple if state and federal governments refused to become equal partners in paying for the city's $3 billion sewer overhaul.

Today, the projected cost is $4 billion. Atlanta has won less than $5 million in federal grants. State officials have offered only low-interest loans.

And, with no help on the horizon, Franklin is on the verge of making her prediction about rates come true.

Utility officials Wednesday proposed a series of five rate hikes for water and sewer service beginning with 27.5 percent later this year and followed by four increases of 10 to 15 percent.

Franklin's already bumped up sewer rates 70 percent in five years. So if all the rate hikes are adopted by the Atlanta City Council in June, the average household's water bill will have jumped from $50 to $135 over 10 years — a 170 percent increase. At the same time, the Department of Watershed Management will propose cutting about 140 positions to save money.

"It does not surprise me that this is an expensive project," Franklin said. "It appears until the federal government decides that water quality is important at the federal level, the average folks are going to have to continue to pay."

Council members — who have supported a 1 percent sales tax for sewers, as well as the previous rate hikes — are beginning to buckle under the pressure of having to force Atlantans to pay the full cost of a program that will saddle generations with billions of dollars in debt.

"The number of people opposed to this is astronomical," said Councilman Lamar Willis. "The problem I've seen with the program from the beginning is it's always been more expensive than we can afford. When we began, no one could have accounted for an economy that is very unforgiving."

The city has lobbied for more federal help and continues to do so, but prospects are cloudy at best.

Willis wondered whether Atlanta might again appeal to state and federal regulators to extend the deadlines for some of the work to make the project more affordable. Currently, the work is scheduled to be finished in about five years.

Councilman Howard Shook, chair of the finance committee, said council members need to look at which projects are required by the two consent decrees that mandated the overhaul, and which ones are just desired.

"If the vast majority of this rate increase has to do with things other than the two consent decrees, then that's where we'll have the big battle," Shook said. "We have to spread out all this work. We can't do it all at once. My 12-year-old's children's children will be paying for this. They had better realize we are at the end of our rope."

Franklin's Clean Water Atlanta plan includes about $3 billion in sewer work plus another $1 billion to overhaul the city's long-neglected water pipes and distribution system. Since the city's network extends outside Atlanta's limits, the rate change affects residents from Sandy Springs through south Fulton.

And, since Atlanta plans to finance nearly every penny over 30 years, the final cost will be several times the initial price tag, and skyrocketing sewer rates will continue decades after the work is finished.

"It's tough, a tough thing," said Atlanta Councilwoman Carla Smith, who chairs the city's utilities committee. "We've had to end up paying every dime. Other cities have gotten help. We haven't."

Atlanta utility officials stress that beyond the huge price tag they've had to shoulder alone, the city also been forced to fix its sewers in a short time span. Atlanta has been given only about a dozen years to complete the overhaul when other cities facing similar orders have been given more than twice as long.

"Some part of this is a balancing act," said Rob Hunter, who oversees Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management. "It's a very different business model than anyone else has had to deal with."

Hunter noted that while the costs seem extreme, improving the sewer system has had dramatic financial benefits for a city that was teetering on the brink of a development moratorium five years ago. Avoiding that moratorium has allowed for billions of dollars in development across the city, he added.