Drought over, but Atlanta water rates won’t fall

Atlanta officials raised water rates last year, in part, because the city noticed a drop in revenue when homeowners heeded the call to use less water during the drought.

Last month, state officials declared that the drought was over, but a city official said Tuesday there are no plans to lower the rates.

“It takes a few years for that use to start building back up,” Rob Hunter, the city’s watershed management commissioner, said in a brief interview. “It doesn’t come right back in revenue, and we’ve seen that in other utilities across the U.S. when their restrictions are lifted.”

The city has not lowered its own drought restrictions.

Water use decreased by 10 percent during the drought, Hunter’s staff said. Mayor Shirley Franklin and the city council last June raised the rates by 27.5 percent along with smaller increases through 2012.

Barbara Payne, who runs the day-to-day operations of a civic group that tracks local government spending, said the city should consider lowering the rates.

“People are getting punished for conserving [water],” said Payne, executive director of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation.

Officials say the city needed the rate increase to ensure it can complete the ongoing $4 billion effort to fix its aging sewers, improve water quality and limit pollution into nearby rivers, lakes and streams. Atlanta completed the first phase of the work last year under budget, with the entire project scheduled to be finished within the next five years.

Hunter talked about the rates after a testy news conference where reporters pressed him about a lawsuit filed by homeowner Lisa Webb last week questioning the city’s water billing practices. City Attorney Beth Chandler said her staff would “defend the lawsuit vigorously” but she could not discuss details because it is in litigation.

State lawmakers held a hearing several months ago to deal with the flood of complaints from businesses and homeowners who claimed they were being overcharged by the city or unfairly billed. Hunter later said a computer glitch was responsible for some of the billing problems.