Bucks County Water & Sewer Authority Holds Rates Steady

Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority customers won’t see rates go up in 2024.

The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority Board of Directors on Wednesday approved the sewer and water budgets without rate increases.

The directors approved a $17.5 million water budget and a $78.9 million sewer budget for the authority that serves thousands of customers in Bucks County, Montgomery County, and Chester County.

In a statement, the authority said the sewer budget “absorbs higher costs for treatment services through strategic financing and positive returns.”

“Services for sewage treatment are expected to increase by $2.7 million over last year. A significant portion of the increase is due to the Philadelphia Water Department’s (PWD) almost 25 percent rate increase for its contracted services with BCWSA, which sends wastewater from lower Bucks County to a treatment facility in Philadelphia,” a statement from the authority said.

Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority CEO Benjamin Jones said the authority is absorbing the increased cost thanks to the authority’s “estimated debt service for 2022 issuance being higher than the actual because of financing adjustments and the capitalization of interest.”

“The better than anticipated borrowing rates and ability to maintain our debt services allow us to absorb the additional cost from PWD,” said Jones. “We also realized better than projected investment returns from overall higher interest rates.”

The authority is planning significant upgrades totaling $155 million to the system.