Residents express frustration as Colorado community considers 50% water rate increase

Broomfield residents crowded inside city council chambers, frustrated and concerned after learning about a proposal that could hike residents' water and sewage utility bills by 50%.

"Little numbers turn into big numbers for families and that's what we're facing," said Broomfield resident Rick Fernandez.

Fernandez and other residents like him say they first learned about this proposal following a study session held by city and county council members last week.

"Which is a huge burden on families," Fernandez said."And that's how I as a citizen am looking at it."

"Holy toledo, I mean that's a large increase, especially in a utility bill," said Dean Boyd, a Broomfield resident of 35 years. "I'm here to find out why this is happening."

Many Broomfield residents who attended Thursday night's first public forum on the subject, were expecting to express their concerns before city and county officials. Yet, staff say this meeting was only intended to educate the public about why these increases need to happen before the community's infrastructure can no longer support and provide water to its residents. 

"It's a confluence of a lot of events. It's record-breaking inflation," Broomfield Councilmember James Marsh-Holschen said. "We have a huge increase in regulatory requirements such as the PFAs requirements for testing and monitoring that came down from the EPA, those are all unfunded. So, we have to do it, but we have to pay for it ourselves."

Apart from rising costs to build new infrastructure, Marsh-Holschen, who spoke to CBS News Colorado ahead of Thursday's meeting, says it is also partly a fiscal management issue that has been kicked down the road for years.

"In Broomfield, we've had a history of not funding preventative maintenance, so right now we're faced with a $23 million backlog in our sewer infrastructure maintenance, which is projected to grow to $75 million in the next decade if we do nothing," he said.

Now, city leaders say Broomfield's growing community over the past few years, coupled with a growing need to replace and create for more water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure has reached a fever pitch.

"We have to expand our wastewater treatment facility. We are statutorily required to do that. That's a $500 million project over the next 15 years. We have to build a $93 million water tank up north because we've reached the population where these infrastructure improvements need to be done. If we don't do them, we won't be able to provide water to our residents," said Marsh-Holschen. "So, we really don't have a choice."

Frustrated Broomfield residents who say they feel like they now have to bear the costs of years of inaction say steps should have been taken sooner to fix the community's water and sewage system.

"What we're hearing is a lot of excuses," said Fernandez. "We're hearing a lot of apologies. We're hearing about how past council's or past city management have put us in this position."

Speaking before residents during the community meeting, city and county manager Jennifer Hoffman, says not one lever could've prevented the critical need that's now facing the community now. She says previous administrations didn't face the same challenges they had to in the last couple of years, including prioritizing the maintenance of existing infrastructures throughout the pandemic.

"There's a lot of information out there right now about who did what and why they didn't do it and historical lack of action," said Hoffman.

People like Fernandez say they want to see the city prioritize making changes in how they allocate their budget instead of only asking residents to make sacrifices.

"It's almost a foregone conclusion that it's going to happen. They need to hear from the public that we are making sacrifices every single day," he said.

Residents did pose questions before city and county staff as to why this funding cannot come out of the city's budget, or by increasing sales taxes. A spokesperson says "enterprise" funds -- which support Broomfield's water and sewer funding -- must pay for itself by service charges and fees.

"We cannot use property and sales tax revenues to pay for water. We can't use water fees to pay for police and parks, etc. It has to be independent," said Marsh-Holschen.

City and county leaders say there will be additional meetings scheduled throughout the summer including town halls in which residents will be able to voice their concerns publicly. The council is not expected to take up a vote on the proposed utility hike until as early as October.