Peachtree City’s Water and Sewer Authority Monday unanimously passed a 5 percent increase starting in December and another 5 percent increase in October of next year.

Each increase amounts to approximately $1.50 on the sewer bill of the average residential customer, according to WASA General Manager Larry Turner.

No one from the public spoke during the public hearing on the matter, Turner said.

The last time the sewer rates were raised was more than six years ago, Turner said.

WASA has seen decreased revenues in recent months in large part due to lower water usage figures across the residential and commercial sectors. In September 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.

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.

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