Beginning Sept. 1, sewer rates for residential and commercial customers in the city of Jemison will increase.

The Jemison City Council unanimously voted Monday to amend an ordinance setting new fees for the sanitary sewer system for the city.

The previous rate for all sewer customers was one half of a resident’s water bill, with a minimum of $7, which generates about $84,000 per year, according to information provided by Jemison Mayor Eddie Reed.

Currently, the annual cost for the city’s sewer system is about $357,839 per year, leaving the city a deficit of nearly $274,000 per year.

“What is happening is all of the taxpayers for Jemison are having to subsidize the sewer for about a fourth of the citizens,” Reed said. “That big of a deficit is just too big for a small city like Jemison to handle.”

As a result, the new rates for residential and commercial customers are as follows:

•Residential rates inside the city: $12 minimum for the first 2,000 gallons of water consumed and $4.90 per 1,000 gallons consumed after the first 2,000 gallons.

•Outside residential rates: $15 minimum for the first 2,000 gallons consumed and $5.90 per 1,000 gallons after the first 2,000 gallons.

•Commercial rates inside the city: $36 minimum for the first 2,000 gallons consumed and $5.42 for 1,000 gallons consumed after the first 2,000 gallons.

•Commercial rates outside the city: $45 minimum for the first 2,000 gallons consumed and $6.90 per 1,000 gallons consumed after the first 2,000 gallons.

•Multi-family dwellings, apartment complexes and trailer parks: Each multi-family dwelling, apartment complex and trailer park, when on one master meter, will be charged the appropriate commercial rate, and each individual unit shall be charged the appropriate residential minimum rate as an impact fee.

Reed said there are 391 sewer customers in the city with 323 residential, 57 commercial and 11 school accounts.

In April 2014, the EPA passed down regulations to ADEM that required every sewer system that is located on the Cahaba watershed to meet new phosphorous limits, according to Reed.

The new permit limitation for Jemison is .3 mg/L where the city was previously at 2 mg/L. The chemical cost to meet this new phosphorous limit is around $4,000 per month in chemicals.

“Unfortunately, sewer is one thing you can not cut from the city,” Reed said. “It is vital to the county school system, several residents and businesses, and future economic growth. Sewer is one of the city’s largest expenditures, and we have the fiscal responsibility to recover the costs as much as we can without charging the customers too much.”