A proposal on the agenda for Monday night's city council meeting may trickle down to a $73.64 added expense for an average Sault Ste. Marie residential ratepayer in 2024.
If approved, the additional charge will pay for costs related to the collection, transmission, treatment and discharge of sanitary sewage.
But the extra cost won't show up on your city tax bill.
Instead, it will be collected by the Public Utilities Commission, as an addition to your water bill.
Nobody wants the messy job of measuring all the stuff pouring from the toilets, sinks, taps and washing machines of every home.
So since 1962, the amount of water used by each address is used as a rough indicator of sewage generation.
In that year, the sanitary sewer fee was calculated as 33.3 per cent addition to a PUC customer's water bill.
"The rate was lowered to 30 per cent in 1969 and then raised to 60 per cent in 1982," says a report prepared by city staff for Monday's city council meeting.
"It was was further raised in 1985 to 75 per cent to finance both capital and operating costs resulting from the new West End Wastewater Treatment Plant," says the report.
"In early 2000, the rate was changed to 100 per cent to fund capital, operating and maintenance costs of the major expansion and upgrading to the East End Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Bellevue Park sanitary sewer overflow tanks, and other pumping stations and forcemains."
More recently, the sanitary sewer fee has been 70 per cent of the water charge.
On Monday, Shelley Schell, the city's chief financial officer and treasurer, and Carl Rumiel, director of engineering, will recommend that be increased to 80 per cent.
A big part of that is needed to pay for the new biosolids management facility, which is slated for construction in 2024 and must be operational by 2025.
"The proposed increase in the sanitary fee is estimated to provide an additional $3.3 million in revenue for debt servicing for the sanitary portion of the bio solids project as well as other capital and operational pressures," say Schell and Rumiel.
Monday's city council meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 5 p.m.