The Kennebec Water District’s new complex, photographed in July 2023, at 131 Drummond Ave. in Waterville. Morning Sentinel file

WATERVILLE — Members of the public will have opportunity during a hearing Tuesday night to comment on rate increases proposed by the Kennebec Water District that would initially add about $24 a year to a typical residential bill.

Proposed increases would boost rates by 6% in 2025 and 8% in 2026 for the district’s 9,000 customers in Benton, Fairfield, Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow.

The 7 p.m. hearing is expected to be hosted by the 10 elected members of the KWD board of trustees at the district office at 131 Drummond Ave. in Waterville.

Water District General Manager Roger Crouse said Monday the proposed increases are necessary for replacement of aging infrastructure, increasing operating and maintenance costs and debt service on the district’s new $14.5 million facility off Drummond Ave.

While the district has many types of customers, including commercial, municipalities and others, Crouse used a typical single-family home’s consumption of water to describe how the increases would affect customers.

Roger Crouse, general manager of the Kennebec Water District, inside the district’s new complex at 131 Drummond Ave. in Waterville in July 2023. Morning Sentinel file

For a typical single-family home, the district estimates the cost is about $105 a quarter right now and that would increase to about $111 starting Jan. 1, 2025, for a total increase of about $24 a year, according to Crouse.

“It will be about a $6 increase (per quarter) that the typical single-family home would realize,” he said.

On Jan. 1, 2025, the minimum quarterly charge increase would be $4.74 and the monthly increase, $2.01, for a total increase of 6%.

On Jan. 1, 2026, the minimum quarterly charge increase would be $6.69 and the monthly increase, $2.84, for a total increase of 8%.

The KWD board of trustees voted earlier this year to approve the rate increases, Crouse said, and made an initial submission to the Maine Public Utilities Commission in August. The district’s trustees are scheduled to take a final vote Thursday, and the PUC has the ultimate say.

“We have to hold a public hearing,” Crouse said. “That’s a critical part of the process.”

In addition to the Waterville-area communities it serves, KWD also wholesales water to Maine Water, which serves Oakland. The district’s largest single customer is Huhtamaki Inc. at 242 College Ave. in Waterville, according to Crouse.

The water is piped from China Lake through 152 miles of distribution pipe. The ratepayers provide the only revenue source for the district, Crouse said.

He said KWD does not seek to increase rates, but doing so is necessary to keep up with increasing costs, including chemicals, electrical needs and staff members’ pay. The cost to replace pipes is $4 million per mile, Crouse said.

KWD’s complex, which opened last year at 131 Drummond Ave., consolidated the 145-year-old, quasi-municipal corporation’s administrative offices and operations at a 15-acre site. The business office, built in 2004, moved there from 6 Cool St., as did the operations that were at 5 and 7 South St.