by Mindy Aguon

Guam - While you may see some relief in your electrical bill with the restructuring of bonds, you may see an increase in your water bill. In approving the Guam Waterworks Authority's Fiscal Year 2013 $77 million budget, the Consolidated Commission on Utilities also approved a 10.85% rate increase. The impact to the average customer would be between $4 and $5 a month.

CCU chairperson Simon Sanchez says the increase is the last of a five-year rate plan that was adopted back in 2009. He added, "As we upgrade GWA in the future some of the upgrades do incur other costs in order for us to be compliant with USEPA standards so unfortunately that is creating some of the pressure to raise the rates a little more than we had thought four years ago."

The request has been forwarded to the Public Utilities Commission, which will spend the next 90 days reviewing the rate case. It's expected the PUC will act on the request in December or January.