ZELIENOPLE — The borough council has proposed to increase the surcharge to its 2,200 water customers to pay for the construction of its water line to its future supplier Beaver Falls Municipal Authority.

The council voted Monday night to draft an ordinance that will raise the capital improvements surcharge to $18.50 from $6.20.

The ordinance is expected to be voted on this fall and the higher surcharge passed on to water customers beginning in December or January.

The surcharge was first implemented in 1993 about the time the borough was about to undertake a major water line replacement project.

The $12.30 increase will pay for the $5.8 million that will be borrowed to pay for the connection with the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority and a potential future water line replacement along Main Street.

That debt is scheduled to be paid for over 20 years.

The actual debt for the project is $6.8 million, but the borough got a $1 million state grant to offset some of the costs.

The Main Street water line replacement project's start date will depend on whether the state Department on Transportation makes any Main Street road improvements.

There is no construction schedule set for that project.

In the meantime, the borough council intends to invest about the remainder of what is left of the money borrowed, projected around $2 million, until it decides to go ahead with the Main Street water line replacement project.

In addition to the surcharge increase, water customers will face a hike in the base rates sometime in 2010 to pay for the increase in water cost.

Borough council will not begin to set the new rates until sometime after it begins the 2010 budget process later this fall.

Water customers pay $17.50 a month for up to 2,000 gallons. From 2,000 to 8,000 gallons, an additional $4 charge is added per 1,000 gallons. Water consumption of more than 8,000 gallons is charged $5.38 per 1,000 gallons a month.

The borough also will switch its billing to an equivalent dwelling unit system based on an average single family residence usage.

Residential customers will see little change from their current billing.

The biggest change will be to commercial, institutional and industrial customers that likely have multiple EDUs because of the large water usage and their base rate multiplied by the number of EDUs that customer uses.

Borough officials believe the new system is a better way of charging actual customer usage.

In May 2008, the borough signed a 40-year agreement with the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority to provide bulk water to the borough. The agreement includes about a 3 percent annual bulk charge to the borough as part of the contract.

The agreement ensures a reliable water supply for water customers beginning in 2010 and will allow the borough to decommission its water plant and breach its raw water storage reservoirs.

The borough will continue to maintain the distribution system for its 2,200 water customers.

The borough's present water system receives its water from Scholars Run, which has gone dry in past years and forced the borough to draw water from Connoquenessing Creek.

The connection with the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority project has been moving quickly since construction began earlier this year.

The construction of a new 11-mile water line from the Beaver Falls well system in Beaver County to the borough's distribution system is at the borough line.

Excavation and line installation work will begin in the borough in the next several months.

The earliest the borough can begin drawing water from the Beaver Falls authority is July 2010.

Borough officials believe the new water supply will be in place by October 2010.