Water company proposing rate hike for Clovis

Officials with the local water company plan to increase water rates by an average of almost 19 percent for Clovis residents within the next seven months.

New Mexico American Water Company Vice President Kathy Wright said reasons for the proposed increase — between 7 and 27 percent depending on various factors — include added expenses, labor and increased capital, which includes the drilling of new water wells.

“We’re putting in a lot of extra capital,” Wright said. “Some people’s bills will double in the summer.”

The company filed a rate increase request on May 24 with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission requesting additional annual revenues of roughly $1.4 million from its water utilities in Clovis and Edgewood. The PRC has nine months from the date of the request to decide to either approve or deny the water rate increases.

Wright said New Mexico American officials mailed a letter on Tuesday notifying Clovis residents of the proposed increase. Residents can intervene on the proposed increases by filing a motion with the Public Regulation Commission in Santa Fe. The deadline for residents to file with PRC is on or before Aug. 23.

Clovis resident Augustus Jones said he saw an advertisement printed in the Clovis News Journal’s July 16 edition notifying residents of the proposed increases.

He said he has no problem with the increase based on consumption, but isn’t thrilled about a service fee increase, which for him will increase to $12 from $9.31 a month.

He said on average he uses about 2,250 gallons a month and his monthly bill — now at around $15 — would increase by about $5, over half of that amount going to the service fee.

He also said he needed a magnifying glass to read portions of the advertisement.

“This is life, everything goes up,” he said. “But I was just taken by the fact that I had a very difficult time reading the public announcement. They should have paid for bigger print.”

If the proposed increases pass, a family using 20,000 gallons a month with a one-inch water meter would see their monthly bill increase to $74.40 from $65.87, about a 13 percent increase.

By contrast, a Portales family using 20,000 gallons a month pays $30.83. Karen Chandler, billing supervisor in Portales, said the city council passed a five-year rate increase plan where water rates go up 4 percent each year. The plan ends in three years, Portales Public Works Director Tom Howell said, but the council can choose to renew the plan.

Unlike in Clovis, the city of Portales services water to its residents, and is supplemented by state funding.

Gov. Bill Richardson last summer allocated $1 million taxpayer funds to help pay for the conversion of the city’s agriculture water wells to wells used to pump water to Portales homes.

Anti-donation laws would not have allowed Richardson to do the same for wells owned by New Mexico American Water.

Wright said a family with two or three children uses between 12,000 and 15,000 gallons of water each month indoors. The number can be almost double or triple in the summer when yard watering is common, but figures vary widely depending on the family and the size of the yard.

Wright said the last time water rates increased in Clovis was in 1999, by about 12 percent.