Wichita is raising the city’s water rates by 4.15 percent this year while grappling with how to minimize expected yearly rate hikes for the next 20 to 30 years.
The rates are rising now and in the future to pay for a new half-billion dollar drinking-water treatment plant and the cost of complying with new regulations for “biological nutrient removal,” a euphemism for getting more of the dirty stuff out of the sewage water before discharging it back into the environment.
The current water treatment plant is more than 80 years old. It’s plagued with minor problems already and is at risk of major failure in the near future, city staff has said.
Read more: Wichita Eagle.