You’re using a lot less water, so your Peachtree City sewer bill is about to go up.

If that doesn’t make sense, read on.

Sewer bills in Peachtree City will see a 5 percent increase starting in December, and another 5 percent increase is planned for Oct. 1 of next year.

That was the direction from the city’s Water and Sewer Authority on a quite rare 3-2 split vote Monday night.

The increases won’t be finalized until the authority’s Nov. 3 meeting when a public hearing will be held before the rate increase resolution will be adopted, Turner said.

The average residential customer will see an increase of about $1.50 per month on their bill as a result, said WASA General Manager Larry Turner. The average sewer bill is close to $30, he said.

WASA has seen decreased revenues in recent months in large part due to lower water usage figures across the residential and commercial sectors. Last month WASA reported it was about $150,000 behind its projected pace for rate collections.

Turner said while the authority plans to vote on enacting both increases, the plan is to analyze the situation again before the second rate increase goes into effect October 2009.

Should the drought situation change and the area get more rainfall, water usage could go up again and there might be room to reduce or eliminate the second rate increase, Turner said.

Two WASA members voted to adopt a 10 percent increase instead of the split 5 percent increases: Jeff Prellberg and Tim Meredith. Voting in favor of the split increases were Wade Williams, John Gronner and Phil Mahler.

In June, Peachtree City residents at single family homes used a total of 58.1 million gallons compared with a year prior when 102.5 million gallons of water was used, according to WASA’s data. Commercial water use is down too, from an average of between 17 and 18 million gallons to just under 14 million gallons, the data indicates.

Last month WASA adopted its $6.45 million budget, which was a 2.68 percent increase over the previous budget.

Following the long-standing practice of its privately owned predecessor, Georgia Utilities, WASA charges for total water usage metered by the Fayette County Water System as if every gallon of water going through a water meter were ending up in the city’s sewer system.

Since the sewer utility has no independent sewer meters, Peachtree City residents who use sprinklers to water lawns pay for sewer treatment for that outdoor water, although the water never reaches the sewer system.

When water usage declined dramatically because of drought-driven state restrictions, that decreased water use translated to lower sewer system revenues.