Chattanooga area homeowners will pay higher sewer bills again next month to help pay for federally mandated system upgrades needed to limit sewer overflows and other water pollution runoff.
The Hamilton County Wastewater Treatment Authority (WWTA) will boost its sewer fees by 9.8% on Oct. 1 for more than 32,000 customers, while the city of Chattanooga is planning a 6% rate hike for its 65,000 residential sewer users, officials said Friday.
The county sewer rate increase, which was adopted by WWTA directors last month, will add $5.28 to the monthly sewer bill for a typical household that uses 4,000 gallons of water a month, boosting their WWTA bill to about $59 a month. The increase is below the 12% jump in sewer rates implemented a year ago by the WWTA and is similar to the 9.8% rate hike in county sewer rates adopted in 2019.
The WWTA has been working with the EPA for over five years to develop a plan to bring the county into compliance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
The city of Chattanooga reached a consent agreement to clean up its sanitary and stormwater sewer systems nearly a decade ago and completed phase 1 of its improvement program last year. The 2013 consent agreement between the city and EPA provided for more than $250 million of sewer repairs and upgrades by Chattanooga.