By Eddie Burch A rate increase is coming down the pipe to Blue Ridge Rural Water Customers. The rate increase looms after Greer CPW upped the price of water it sells the special purpose district north of Greer. “We will have to pass this along to our customers in some fashion,” says Blue Ridge Water General Manager Brad Powers. During their July 10 meeting Blue Ridge Water commissioner will determine the increase amount. Powers says several rate adjustment proposals are being drafted for presentation to board. The CPW rate adjustment ups the cost Blue Ridge pays by 13 cents per thousand gallons July 1 and another 13 cents per thousand gallons January 1. The monthly base rate paid Blue Ridge will increase once from $1024 .97 to $2691.15. Presently CPW charges Blue Ridge $1.24 per thousand gallons. Both increases when fully implemented January 1 will give Blue Ridge a water purchase cost of $1.50 per thousand gallons. Blue Ridge Water is the largest customer of Greer CPW and purchases about 25 percent of the water sold by the utility. Blue Ridge does not presently have a source for raw water. About 80 percent of the water sold by the district comes from Greer CPW. Greenville Water system provides about 20 percent of the water. CPW is basing the rate increase on a recently completed rate study. The rate adjustments recommended by the study equate to CPW’s cost to treat water as it is drawn from Lake Cunningham. CPW General Manager Jerry Balding explained, “That is cost for production including treatment, debt service, and salaries. We have done a lot of work at the water plant and added new debt. We have to make sure their cost stays in line with our costs.” Blue Ridge Water serves about just over 10,000 customers on the district’s city water system. Another 450 customers are served by well systems within two Cliffs communities. Blue Ridge earlier this year absorbed lesser increases from CPW and supplier Greenville Water. Blue Ridge customers’ most recent rate adjustment came in June of last year when rates went up $1.50.  This covered a rate increase from Greenville and the district’s cost in complying with new state mandated disinfection byproduct rule. Presently Blue Ridge has a residential base rate of $13.50 for 2,000 gallons. The Commercial base rate is $24.75 for 5,000 gallons and the industrial rate is $43.50 for 10,000 gallons. All three rate classes have charges of $3.55 per thousand gallons used above the base rate minimum. The pending increase if approved by Commissioners will likely take effect for Blue Ridge customers in mid-August and be reflected on the September bills. Powers says the rate increase will not affect customers on the Cliffs systems. Blue Ridge has a 40-year contract for the purchase of water from CPW. The contract guarantees the district can purchase up to 120 million gallons a month. Powers says during peak periods Blue Ridge will sell some 60 to 70 million gallons of water in a month. Though the contract provides Blue Ridge plenty of water to meet demand, Powers hopes to increase availability through CPW. “We will be renegotiating over the next few months,” he noted. “We still have a long way to go to meet 120 million gallons but with the customers we are adding it may not take long.” Balding predicts, “We all know the Blue Ridge Community is growing. At some point in the future in my opinion they may have more water customers than we have in Greer because of the large service area they have.”