For many Akron households, the outcome is lousy either way: higher monthly bills or a sewer system the city can’t sustain.
While both outcomes stink — one figuratively, the other literally — city officials told Akron City Council on Monday they are pursuing the rate hike option.
Legislation filed by the Department of Public Service calls for a phased increase over the next four years, combining a higher usage rate and a flat monthly fee. Officials say the plan is meant to cover loan payments for past sewer upgrades while maintaining the system’s day-to-day operation amid declining water usage. The legislation intends to avoid a $10 million shortfall expected by 2027
Next year, city calculations estimate that an average Akron household should expect to see bills rise by roughly $7 per month and up to $22 to $37 per month by 2029 — depending on an upcoming federal court decision in the city’s consent degree with the Environmental Protection Agency, which initiated $1.2 billion in sewer fixes over the last decade.
City Council is expected to vote later this month on the rate increase legislation.
“This is not something that has happened lightly,” said Akron Mayor Shammas Malik in a meeting last week with reporters. The city had to do “decades of work in one decade” because of previous underinvestment. The mayor also said the sewer system needs to fund itself, and this legislation “creates some level of consistency and expectation” for residents with billing.
The average monthly residential sewer bill, according to calculations from the city, would increase from $46.39 in 2025 to:
- $53.63 per month in 2026
- $55.99 per month in 2027
- $63.51 or $78.51 per month in 2028, depending on a federal court decision
- $68.65 or $83.65 per month in 2029, depending on a federal court decision
“From a fiscal responsibility standpoint, we think it is reasonable to have this type of modest increase to keep us in the middle range” of sewage rates compared to other cities, said Emily Collins, the city’s environmental services manager. According to a city review of “peer” jurisdictions, Akron’s rates would become higher than Toledo’s and remain higher than cities such as Dayton and Columbus while remaining lower than cities such as Cincinnati and Cleveland.
The projected sewer bills are based on annual 5.3% usage rate increases over the next four years and flat monthly charges of $5 in 2026 and 2027, $10 in 2028, and $12.50 in 2029. The legislation also reduces discounts previously given to some industrial ratepayers and expands discount programs for certain low-income tenants and homeowners who could be eligible for a 40% discount.
Rates would be higher for users with pipes larger than 1 inch – typically commercial businesses.
Akron remains under a federal consent decree, imposed by the Obama-era EPA, that has already led to the city to spending hundreds of millions upgrading an aging sewer system once notorious for dumping massive volumes of sewage into the Cuyahoga River during heavy rains.
The proposal includes a potential $15 monthly flat fee starting in 2028 and 2029 that would be tacked on if the federal court requires the city to build a treatment center as laid out in the consent decree. The city says the facility is both too expensive – likely $265 million, according to the city – and unnecessary given the extensive sewer repairs over the last decade that the city says have addressed the issues that led to the consent decree.
During Monday afternoon’s City Council committee meetings, Council Member Phil Lombardo called the proposed increases “modest” and “fair,” while Council Member Donnie Kammer expressed concern that the four-year plan would limit the governing body’s checks and balances.