Kenton and Campbell County residents could see a rate increase on their water bills by Jan. 1 if the Northern Kentucky Water District gets state approval.

        “For an average monthly bill, which is approximately 6,000 gallons of water usage, it will mean an increase of about $1 a month for Campbell County residents and a little less than $7 a month for the Kenton County residents,” said Ron Lovan, president and CEO of the district.

        “The unified rate will be about $23 per month. We think that is a real good value. It's 75 cents a day.”

        Mr. Lovan said there are several reasons for the proposed increase.

        The first is a legal question. The Public Service Commission requires that the district have a uniform systemwide rate structure. But since the merger of the two counties' water districts in 1997, each has had a different rate structure. Boone County and Florence have continued to manage their own departments, but buy water from the district at a wholesale rate, an arrangement that will change when a huge pipe under the Ohio River starts pumping Cincinnati water.

        The Public Service Service Commission has given the district time to work through the merger before unifying its rates.

        “We have to file a petition to the Public Service Commission for this type of rate adjustment,” said Mr. Lovan.

        The commission has six months to respond to the petition filed April 30.

        “The second reason we are having a rate adjustment is because we're going to lose approximately 16 percent of our annual revenue due to the loss of Boone County and Florence as wholesale customers,” he said.

        Boone and Florence will stop buying their water from the district in March and instead will get it from Cincinnati through the pipe being installed under the Ohio River.

        “We're spending $42 million to do it,” said Phil Trzop, general manager for the Boone County Water District.

        “We anticipate our rates will go up about $4 per month. That's about a 35 percent increase.”

        If Boone County had continued buying its water from the district, the district was going to build a new water-treatment plant in Boone County and residents' water rates would have increased by 70 percent, Mr. Trzop said.

        “Our rates are locked in with Cincinnati for the next 29 years,” Mr. Trzop said, adding that Cincinnati City Council determines the rate.

        “If they raise our water rates, they raise their rates, too.”

        Cincinnati uses a state-of-the-art filtration system, so Mr. Trzop said the county's water could taste better, too.

        “They don't have to use as much chlorine or chemicals as Northern does. The EPA thinks this is the greatest thing since butter,” he said.

        The decision to leave the district was made after a study was completed involving Boone County Water District, Boone County Fiscal Court, Florence, Florence Water and Sewer Commission, Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky Water District, several consulting firms and the county judge-executives of Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.

        The study showed that the water district has a difficult time meeting the water needs of Boone County and Florence.

        Boone County uses 6 million to 7 million gallons a day and up to 12 million in the summer. Conservation measures may have to be implemented this summer while the county still gets its water from the district.

        “Now we'll be able to provide ourselves up to 30 million gallons easily,” Mr. Trzop said of receiving water from Cincinnati. “That will meet our projected needs until the year 2025,” when a secondary pipe could be installed under the river.

        If the two entities were to stay with the district, Mr. Lovan said, the district would need to build a new water-treatment plant in Boone County and raise its wholesale rates.

        “That rate would have been bigger than the rate they currently project.”

        Florence and Boone County leaving the district is one of the reasons a rate adjustment is required, but not the only reason, Mr. Lovan said.

        “The third reason for the adjustment is our infrastructure is reaching an age where significant renovations or replacement is needed,” he said.

        “The fourth reason is federally mandated water-quality regulations that we must meet. We do not receive any grant funds to assist in meeting those.

        “The rate adjustment is needed for us to continue to meet those regulations.” Mr. Lovan said the Northern Kentucky Water District has not seen a rate adjustment in at least eight years.

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