Hopatcong Water Bills to Raise $52 in 2012

Hopatcong water bills will be $52 higher in 2012 than in 2011.

A loss in revenue—a result of a drop in residents' water use—and the near matching of a $1.7 million Environmental Protection Agency grant led to the increase, Borough Administrator Bob Elia said after Wednesday night's council meeting at the .

It's at least the second straight year Hopatcong water bills have risen. The cost jumped from $272—or $68 per quarter—in 2010 to $288—or $72 per quarter—in 2011 due to revenue losses, Elia said. In 2011, water will cost $340—or $85 per quarter.

Though grant was responsible for the bulk of the increase, costs would actually have skyrocketed without it, Elia said. The borough must match 45 percent, or about $900,000, of the EPA's grant, which will be used for water system-improvement projects, such as the replacement of emergency backup generators at Elba Point, Elia said.

"If we didn't get the grant to match," he said, "this increase would have been twice of what it is."

"It's not that people aren't paying their water bills," Mayor Sylvia Petillo said. "Just they're using less water. So we're getting less revenue."

Elia said the borough had no choice but to raise its water rate.

"If we don't change the rates, the state will come in and change the rates for us," he said.

"We have to be self-liquidating, being those are the laws as far as utilities are concerned."

Residents are charged $85 for the first 10,000 gallons of water used each quarter. Then they're charged $3.54 for each 1,000 gallons past that.

The council will hold a special meeting 6 p.m. Dec. 21 to finalize the increase. The council will also decide whether to adopt an ordinance to combine Hopatcong's zoning and planning boards into a single land-use board at the meeting.