Winter Springs gives first approval to water rate hike

Water bills in Winter Springs are expected to rise significantly as the City Commission looks to a water rate hike and other ways to pay for major improvements to its infrastructure.

The City Commission on Nov. 16 unanimously approved a five-year plan to increase rates for water, wastewater and sewage in the city. The year-over-year increases start at 18.6% in 2024, 16.7% in 2025 and tapering off to a 7.5% increase by 2029.

According to a presentation to the city in August, the median home in Winter Springs uses about 5,000 gallons of potable water per month, or a total bill of about $55 a month. By 2029, that same bill would be $113 – more than doubled.

Art Gallo is a resident of Winter Springs. He said his water bill in September of this year was $63.11. Five years later in 2027, it’s expected to be $120 without some of the fees.

“Math is not my strong suit,” Gallo said at the meeting. “That’s an overall, as I calculate it, a 92% increase. … Again, this isn’t a complaint. If we need it, we need it, I get it.”

Commissioner Cade Resnick voted to approve the rate increase, which was first discussed in August.

“As much as I would like to tell you ‘no, we don’t need it,’ every bit of everything I’ve seen says we do need it,” Resnick said.

The plan needs to get final approval at a hearing on Dec. 11.

The move comes as the city is under increasing scrutiny for its water infrastructure. The city owns two wastewater treatment facilities: The East Water Reclamation Facility and the West Reclamation Water Facility. The city outsourced operations of those facilities to Veolia North America in 2019.

According to an audit from the Florida Auditor General, the city and its contractor have paid $318,372 in costs and penalties since 2021 to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The city has been on the hook for $68,100 and the contractor has incurred $250,272 in costs. Those costs can include fines and penalties, or improvements to infrastructure meant to prevent future issues.

City officials appeared before a Tallahassee committee Dec. 4 to answer for the audit and its findings. You can read coverage of that meeting here.

Overall, the city is looking at $166 million in capital improvements to its water infrastructure over the next five years.

“To put that in perspective, you do about $12 million in water, wastewater revenue per year,” said Joe Williams, a consultant with Raftelis Consulting, which studied the city’s rates, at a meeting in August. “So to fund $166 million is going to be a major challenge. There’s a lot of debt funding to spread those project costs and repayment over the life of the program.”

Other cities in Central Florida have also had a water rate hike recently, including Vero Beach, Hallandale Beach and Melbourne, which have all approved double-digit rate increases.

Additionally, the City Commission voted to extend a contract with Veolia for an extra year. Commissioners said this was done to provide stability while waiting to hire a new city manager. Funding for the major plant upgrades is expected to come from a state loan program.

Here’s a breakdown of the major projects and costs: