Ouch #2 Today: Watch Your Water Rates Go Up Almost 20 Per Cent

James Mayer, The Oregonian today:

Water rates would go up 17.9 percent under a budget plan presented to the City Council today by the Portland Water Bureau.

The increase is driven in part by council decisions to use reserves to avoid large rate hikes in recent years, said Commissioner Randy Leonard, who oversees the bureau.

"That was a huge mistake," Leonard. "No good deed goes unpunished."

The action would mean a $2.76 increase on the average residential customer's monthly bill of $15.40.

The average bill is $15.40? Ain't ours, let me tell you.

And we're still worrying about cryptosporidium? Something that pretty much never happens in Portland? Because we get our water straight out of the mountains?

If Mount Hood ever erupts, then you can put a fork in our water supply. Until then? Barring population pressure, I ain't so worried myself.