SOUTHWICK – The Water Commission will likely approve an increase in water rates at its next meeting after a presentation by DPW Director Rich Bosak at its meeting on Aug. 20.
“We’re going to have to bump them up,” said Bosak, adding that he had been doing some calculations with an expectation that the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission could increase what it bills the town for water.
While Bosak doesn’t yet have an idea of how much the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission will increase its rates, the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission announced in late June that the rate for city of Springfield water customers was going up 17%.
“We gotta cover our expenses, that’s all we can do,” said commission chair Ed Johnson, responding to Bosak.
It’s been over a year and a half since the commission raised the rate.
In April 2025, rates for the town’s water customers increased by an average of 6%, which, at the time, was the first increase since 2022.
Commissioner John Cain said it was important to keep up with the rate to avoid steep increases.
“It’s important so we don’t all of a sudden go up 30%,” Cain said.
Johnson agreed.
“I want to do it the same way we did it before (in April 2025). I don’t want to do it all in the first billing…so [customers] don’t get the shock all at once. You go up in stages,” Johnson said.
Currently, customers pay one of three rates based on water usage over six months. For customers using up to 15,000 gallons during six months the rate is $7.75 per thousand gallons; for customers using between 10,000 and 30,000 in six months the rate is $8.50 per thousand gallons; and for those using over 30,000 gallons in six months the rate is $9.65 per 1,000 gallons, which was increased by 10% during that billing cycle.
The minimum bill is $121.25.
Bosak said there were several factors driving a rate increase. One is the expected rate increase from Commission, and another and another is the increase in the rate for the elderly.
“We are slowly getting many more elderly applications,” Bosak said, adding that he’s not blaming the elderly for requesting a discount, “but this is where we are.”
The water department must also be prepared for minor and major breaks in the water lines, which Cain addressed.
“I mean, with these leaks that we’re having with the old lines, we’re having a lot more small failures and a lot more big failures, too. So, there’s going to be expenses that we’re just going to have to pay,” he said.
He also mentioned the aging water lines contributing to the increase in repairs.
“Unfortunately, when we put these lines in way back, people just assumed they were going to last forever. And now we’re like, wow, realizing they don’t. And it’s not just Southwick,” Cain said.
Bosak will have a better understanding of the increase at the next commission meeting after he “runs the numbers.”
The aging system is also contributing to another issue with the water department – unaccounted for water.
“We do have a higher unaccounted for water number,” Bosak said.
The most recent report had unaccounted-for water at 24%.
Unaccounted-for water is the difference between the amount of water drawn from the town’s wells and the amount purchased from the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission.
“We know how much water we’re getting into the system, and we know how much we’re metering per customer. The number between those two is unaccounted for water,” he said, adding that it does not factor into water rate increases.
In 2022, unaccounted-for water was 7.9%; it rose to 13% in 2023 and jumped to 22% in 2024, he said.
Much of that water leaks from water lines that in some cases are over 100 years old.
Bosak said that while people think copper lines could last decades, it only takes a small rock next to a line that, over the years, eventually erodes the metal, creating a pinhole leak.
He also pointed to other examples of leaks that affected the percentages in 2023 and 2024.
He described leaks on Robin Road as significant before they were discovered, and then described a leak on Rising Corner Road.
No one knows how long that line leaked because it occurred near a small stream.
“That line was running to a brook,” he said.
It was only discovered when one of the homes the line delivered water to began to have pressure issues.
“One of the houses on the end started complaining that it had no pressure, and that’s when we started backtracing and [found] where it was. So, I think those kind of played into [the higher percentage of unaccounted for water],” Bosak said.
“And then, it’s obviously all the little breaks,” he said.
He said there is a firm that uses equipment it attaches to the lines that listens for running water and pinpoints leaks.
The last time the company was used was in 2023.
Bosak said he plans to request funding for another leak detection survey in the 2028 budget.
