BOZEMAN — In the last couple of months, Bozeman residents have reported their water bills almost doubling their normal rate. So, we’re checking with the City of Bozeman to see what’s going on.
"So, we first noticed that our August bill was pretty high and attributed it to irrigation. But then September was even higher than August was," says Bozeman resident Scott Wagner.
He says the water use on his bills was almost two and a half times their normal usage.
Hearing Scott’s concern, I reached out to Shawn Kohtz with the City of Bozeman's utilities division, who tells me water rates did increase in September.
"The water rate increase was 12% and that’s fairly high, so I do acknowledge that," he says.
Kohtz says the cause of this increase can be summarized in a single word: inflation. And despite single-family rates staying flat for the last five years, operational and construction costs have skyrocketed.
"So, we had construction costs increase in that time by 65%," says Kohtz. "Our operational costs, for example chlorine and chemicals, which we use to disinfect our water supply, that increased by almost 200%."
But Wagner says this rate increase doesn’t explain the extreme spike in usage noted on his water bills.
"We didn’t think we were using that much water. For a single-family home to use an extra 12,000 gallons a month—that’s quite a lot of water," Wagner says.
"All up and down this street, all the other neighbors and people I come into contact with who live in Bozeman, I’m like hey take a look at your water bill and they’re like what the heck," says Wagner.
Bozeman city officials tell me this could be a sign of a bigger issue, such as a water main leak in their subdivision.
Wagner says he hopes the city can do better at identifying these issues sooner.
"It would be really nice if they could do an audit on their equipment, an audit on their software and systems and processes just to make sure that the residents are getting the fair shake that they deserve," he says.
