From the Colorado Daily (Heath Urie):

So far this year, the city has billed residential and commercial customers for about $8.8 million worth of treated water. The problem is, the utility department expected to bill about $10 million by now. “This year, our treated water use was at a low that we had not experienced since 1981,” Ned Williams, Boulder’s director of public works for utilities, told the City Council at a study session Tuesday night. In 1981, Boulder customers used about 5.6 billion gallons of treated water. In 2000, the city used a 30-year high of about 8 billion gallons…

To make up the unexpected decline, and to make sure there’s money left over to keep the city’s aging water infrastructure in good repair, Williams asked the council to raise water rates next year. Several members of the council indicated they would support such a move, after declining to raise rates last year in the face of the recession.

But the irony of asking residents to pay more for water that they’re doing a good job of conserving wasn’t lost on the elected leaders. “What I see is a dilemma of being defeated by our success,” Mayor Susan Osborne said. “We’re saying, ‘Oh my gosh, look what (conservation has) done to our revenues.'”[…]

If the council formally approves that move later this year, the increases would add about $18 a year, or $1.50 a month, to most residential water bills. Commercial customers would also see 3 percent increases.