To help pay

for its impending $17.2 million expansion, the Peachtree City Water and

Sewer Authority is raising its sewer rates across the board.

Depending on

usage, the increase works out to between $2.50 and $8.80 per month for

residential customers using between 2,000 and 10,000 gallons a month.

The residential rate increase to $4.38 per 1,000 gallons an increase of

25 percent is effective March 1 along with an increase in the minimum

bill charge from $15.30 to $20.

This is the

first time sewer rates have risen in Peachtree City since the city took

over the system in 1992.

The increase

will be more dramatic for local businesses, industries and multi-family

customers of WASA. The rate for those entities will increase from $2.75

per 1,000 gallons to $4.85 per 1,000 gallons by October, with an intermediate

increase effective March 1 to $3.25.

That will allow

the companies time to budget for the increase, said WASA General Manager

Larry Turner. For the authority's largest customer, Photocircuits, the

average monthly bill will increase by just over $25,000 by Oct. 1.

The increase

was needed to WASA could qualify for bond financing, since bank officials

require that it take in enough money annually to pay back the debt that

will be owed.

The system

expansion, which is slated to begin in June and end in February 2004,

will increase the sewer system's capacity by 2 million gallons a day.

That will be enough to serve the city at full buildout, Turner said.

Part of the

expansion project is to permanently shut down the Flat Creek treatment

facility, which was originally built to be a temporary treatment plant

but has been in use for almost 30 years, Turner said. Both of the authority's

other wastewater treatment plants, the Line Creek and Rockaway facilities,

will also be expanded and modernized.

The expansion

will also allow the authority to treat waste water with an extra filtration

process so it may be used for irrigation at Planterra Ridge golf course.

This will keep the golf course from having to draw water from Line Creek

for irrigation purposes during the summer months.

Turner also

said the expansion will allow the authority to meet all present environmental

regulations and ones that could be enacted in the foreseeable future.

WASA member

Ted Taylor said the authority didn't have much choice but to approve the

rate increase. The authority also agreed to review its rates every two

years to make sure it takes in enough money to pay the annual debt service

for the expansion.

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