By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The Missouri-American Water Company says the rate hike is necessary to upgrade its aging infrastructure.
However, the staff of the Missouri Public Service Commission is countering that request by instead seeking a $20-million dollar annual revenue reduction.
Missouri-American president Eric Thornburg says water service is a business that requires a lot of capital investment:
"To ask a company to invest in the future of the state and then turn around and lower the rates we think is wrong, and we're disappointed but we're confident that the commissioners in their decision will treat us fairly," Thornburg said.
Thornburg says his company has spent $146 million in the St. Louis region to replace and upgrade water mains and other equipment. The company argues that it's not receiving the full rate of return on common equity that the state permits it to receive.
But St. Charles County resident Chet Boeke says the proposed hike is too much given the rate of inflation:
"I think where the problem may come in is that the high water users in businesses get a reduction; and so therefore, the little guys are carrying the bigger guys and I don't know that that's the way it should be," Boeke said.
If the public service commission approves the request, customers in the nine districts Missouri-American Water serves would see about a 12 percent rate increase.
The commission must decide the case by April.