OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford The Dunkirk Common Council’s Finance Committee meets Monday.

The city of Dunkirk is considering water rate changes.

Randy Woodbury, who runs the water system as chief of the city Department of Public Works, talked about the rates at a Common Council Finance Committee meeting Monday. He spoke of possible changes in separate rates for water sold to the North County Water District, city residents, and Dunkirk’s large industrial customers.

To no one’s surprise, Woodbury immediately mentioned Peter Reinelt, the SUNY Fredonia economics professor who uses a complicated formula to determine what the city’s water rates should be in a given year. Reinelt works with city officials every year to adjust the rate by which the North County Water District buys water.

“The North County Water District water rate will be adjusted, as it is every year,” Woodbury said. A year ago, the adjustment raised the rate to $5.27 per 1,000 gallons sold to the water district, which then distributes the water to its customers. The district includes the towns of Pomfret, Portland, Dunkirk and Sheridan and the village of Brocton.

Dunkirk made $1.3 million on water sales to the district last year, Woodbury continued. The city billed for 795 million gallons of water from its plant, and 258 million gallons went to the water district, he said.

“Reinelt is also working with me on city water rates. They haven’t been adjusted since 2017,” Woodbury said.

The city uses a declining block rate system that lowers prices for large, industrial users of water. According to Woodbury, the rate can get as low as $1.54 per 1,000 gallons if certain high volume usage benchmarks are hit.

“If you go to Country Fair, it’ll cost you $1.54 for a water (bottle) right there, let alone enough water to fill this room,” Woodbury said.

He stated flatly that Dunkirk’s residents are shouldering most of the city’s water costs and industrial users aren’t measuring up. “We’re losing money to some of the big users,” he said.

Councilman-at-large Nick Weiser, chair of the Finance Committee, asked to be a part of water rate discussions. Mayor Kate Wdowiasz and her administration have taken the lead on that for the city so far.

Weiser has previously advocated consideration of an end to the declining block rate structure.