Anniston residents facing water and sewer rate increases

Anniston Water Works and Sewer Board customers can expect to dig a little deeper in their wallets for service.  Water and sewer charges are going up for residential customers.  The increase will be between 6% and 12% respectively on bills received after April 1, 2015.  The amount of the increase will vary based on service and meter size.  Minimum charges to customers will change from $13.12 to $14.00 for water.  Sewer bills will change from $13.12 to $14.00.

Ed Turner, the General Manager of AWWSB, says the board never wants to raise rates, but sometimes is forced to do so.  "We have reached a period of critical replacement for a significant portion of the public sewer system and work must begin now to address these improvements."

The replacement work is slated to continue over the next five to seven years.

The main repairs and upgrades to the sanitary sewer system is taking $4.3 million of the next fiscal year.  AWWSB representatives say the needs over the next five years are expected to top $10 million.