Flushes are not free. Truthfully, getting rid of our waste hasn’t been truly free since we eliminated outhouses from our landscapes. And no one wants to go back there.
But the tongues are wagging these days about Chattanooga and Hamilton County property owners, homeowners (and renters, too) expecting to see higher sewer bills next month to help pay for system upgrades to limit unsanitary overflows and other water pollution runoff – you know, that stinky stuff that runs in and under our streets and into local creeks, streams and the Tennessee River when we have an inch or more of rainfall.
Out in the county, some 32,000 residents served by the Hamilton County Wastewater Treatment Authority, known as the WWTA, will see their sewer fees rise 9.8% on Oct. 1. The typical $5.28 increase will bring most county household sewer bills to about $59 a month, following a 12% jump a year ago and a 9.8% rate bump in county sewer rates adopted in 2019.
Similarly, Chattanooga is planning a 6% rate increase for its 65,000 residential sewer users, officials announced in late August. That will mean another $3.24 a month, the first jump in two years, to raise the average city sewer bill to $57.19 a month.
Don’t be fooled by some of our officials using weighted words like “federally mandated” and “penalties” to cast blame up the political food chain for these higher rates. It’s true that the U.S. Clean Water Act and the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act were enacted by Congress and signed by presidents, but these sewer rate increases are perfect examples of the saying: “all politics are local.”