Trustees of the Boothbay Harbor Sewer District have approved the sewer district’s 2015 budget.  A rate increase of 9 percent will yield a projected $1.2 million in revenue to fund the system against an expected 9 percent increase in expenses.

Both combine to yield a 2 percent overall increase over the previous year’s budget. Significant contributors to the district’s expenses are operation of the plant, debt service and personnel.

Pump stations and the collection system also contribute to overall expense and the care and maintenance of the aging system occasionally requires the funding of unplanned expenses.

As an example, the contract recently awarded to Ted Berry Company, Inc. of Livermore is an expense of $16,800. The expenditure became necessary when the district reviewed recent video of broken sewer pipes that needed to be repaired immediately to prevent further damage to the system.

The 9 percent rate increase will be seen by users of the system as an increase of $7.25 each quarter. In 2014, the current base rate has been $80.30 and the new rate should be approximately $87.55 per quarter.

This approximately $350 per year for residential customers of the Boothbay Harbor sewer district is still well below the average for New England, according to a survey conducted in 2013 by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, which represents the wastewater industry.

The survey showed that the average New England residential customer paid $700 per year. The latest sewer rate survey conducted in Maine shows that Boothbay Harbor fees are in the lower half of those surveyed.

The Environmental Protection Agency uses an area’s median household income as its guide for sewer rates. Using that guideline, the annual sewer rate would be $761.56 rather than the proposed $350.20.

In fact, going forward the new rate of $350.20 represents a decrease of approximately $10 from the amount charged annually to a single residential property ($360) in the early 2000s.