Bowie County residents could likely see an increase in water rates as rates for municipalities are expected to increase by nearly 70 percent after October 1.
This expected increase was announced by Riverbend Water Resources District at a budget workshop last week.
Presently, municipalities are paying $3.4895 per 1,000 gallons. Of that, $1.0895 goes to Texarkana Water Utilities and $2.40 goes to Riverbend.
The proposed rate will jump prices to $5.011 per 1,000 gallons, with $1.4110 to TWU and $3.60 to Riverbend.
This increase will affect the cities of Hooks, Leary, Maud, New Boston, Redwater and Annona as well as TexAmericas.
The increase will not be as drastic for Central Bowie Water Supply Corporation and Oak Grove Water Supply Corporation who have a wholesale contract with TWU. Their increase will include the additional $1.20 from Riverbend and about 3 percent increase from TWU. Contract rates increases with TWU are based on the Con-sumer Price Index, said Tricia Briggs, finance director with TWU.
How much customers will pay has yet to be determined.
“We’re going to try to keep that as low as possible. But, right now, until we get deeper into the budget, we don’t know what our revenues are going to be as far as taxes or infrastructure or anything else,” said Wayne Dial, New Boston city manager.
Local cities have not scheduled budget workshops to determine 20252026 budgets because they are still waiting for property tax revenue figures from the Central Bowie Appraisal District, Dial said.
These budget workshops will help local cities be able to determine the utility rates when increases occur at the municipal level.
“We’ve got to have our revenue. The tax office hasn’t given us what our projected revenues are for taxes next year,” Dial said. “You can’t very well do a budget if you don’t know what money you’ve got to spend.”
Hal Harris, general manager of CBWSC, said they currently pay $1.76 per thousand gallons of water up to 12 million gallons for their three tanks in Malta, DeKalb and Rock Creek. Any water supplied over their contracted amount is billed at $1.94 per thousand.
In the month of June, CBWSC received 8.5 million gallons of extra water over their contracted amount.
Harris said CBWSC customers will not be seeing any increase in their water rates until January 1.
The rate members pay to Riverbend is a debt service payment for the regional water treatment facility that will be located at TexAmericas.
“Water is still being produced at the New Boston Road plant. Once water ceases to be produced at that plant and it starts being produced at our new plant, they’ll stop paying TWU and that contract ends and they’ll simply pay a bill to Riverbend for the water they use along with the debt service,” said Kyle Dooley, TWU executive director.
In 2020, Riverbend secured $200 million through the Texas Water Development Board to begin work on the new facility. The debt service cost members pay goes toward repayment of that loan, Dooley said.
The new facility is still in the planning stage and the cost has drastically increased since the initial $200 million estimate.
“You can imagine what project costs have done from the changes in COVID, supply chain issues, inflation and all that kind of stuff. The project costs have gone up significantly, so we’re still trying to get the needed funding to finish the project through the water development board now. But part of the debt service is to have a rate that will generate the revenue enough to cover the anticipated increases as we continue to close on that money to finish the project,” Dooley said.
The overall cost for the project is estimated at close to $500 million, he added.
The facility has a projected finish of 2028 and will produce 30 million gallons of water daily, Dooley said.
The debt service increase will be voted on during the September board of directors meeting.
