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KC residents notice spike in water bills

Posted at 9:27 PM, Feb 09, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-10 11:36:16-05

Kansas City residents have noticed a spike in their water bills the last two months.

"Average bill is usually $75 to $80, and the last couple, well the last one was $108, the one before that was $98, so they're sneaking up," said Hydy Park resident John Bier. "When I'm expecting it to stay fairly level, it makes a difference when you kind of get a shocker and it's $30, $20 more."

41 Action News found out about the story through a feed on NextDoor, a social network that allows you to communicate with the people in your neighborhood. The post has more than 80 comments from people talking about the bump.

Water services told us there is an increase and it's not over yet. Bills are on average between $10 and $20 higher for months every year.

The manager of the contact center, John Carpenter, explained, "We have what's called an HBC credit and that HBC credit is a time frame where from the months of January through May where consumers or the residents actually pay full price for their sewer costs."

To learn more about the changing water rates, read section 2b on pages 11 & 12 here.

In addition to that, this month users will have a state primacy fee of about $2 as well. The good news is there will be a discounted rate from June through December.

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Dia Wall can be reached at dia.wall@kshb.com.

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