Catasauqua residents’ water bills will jump nearly 15% this year to fund a $1 million loan to replace the borough’s obsolete water meters.

The price increase comes on the heels of a 57% jump last year, but is necessary to address the borough’s aging infrastructure, Borough Manager Glenn Eckhart said.

The ordinance authorizing the rate increase passed 6-1 Monday night during a special meeting of council. Robert Zakos voted against the increase.

The annual residential water bill is about $475, and will go up to $545. That price is based on 5,000 gallons of use per quarter. Customers who use more than that will pay another $13.72 per thousand gallons. All customers will pay a $10 quarterly debt servicing fee, which makes up the bulk of the increase. Sewer bills are not expected to change.

The ordinance was required for the borough to qualify for a $1.02 million loan from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority. The loan, which has a 1% interest rate, will take the borough about 20 years to pay off.

Eckhart said he had hoped to secure grant money to complete the project, and that the loan was the next best option.

“It was the smallest ask,” he told the council.

The Department of Environmental Protection requires water meters to be replaced or tested every 20 years in residential properties. Some of the meters in borough homes are more than 45 years old, Eckhart said.

Currently, the borough keeps track of meter readings on paper file cards. The new system will allow for digital recordkeeping, and will eliminate the need for the human meter readers who now visit properties. Employees in the borough office will get an alert if a home is using an unusual amount of water, and can then send a technician to check if there’s a leaky appliance or other problem.

A majority of the borough’s meters aren’t digital, and must be replaced by the end of the year anyway as the system used to read them will soon be obsolete.

“The extra that’s going to cost the residents, they have to realize that it’s an investment in Catasauqua,” said Robert Evans, Catasauqua’s lead water operator. “If you don’t do these things, the DEP can come in and label your system distressed, and then they’ll go to an outside company and the borough will lose total responsibility for their water system.”

The project will start in June at the earliest, Eckhart said, since the loan will not reach borough bank accounts before that time. Since the borough does not have enough money to hire outside contractors to complete the upgrades, Catasauqua employees will do all the work.

“We’re going to have to use our people to make the phone calls, set up the appointments for all 2,300 customers. This is a huge undertaking for the borough and all we’re trying to do is catch up.”

Eckhart said the borough requires about $18.5 million to complete all the upgrades needed around town to address various problems, including sinkholes. A recent sinkhole repair cost $80,000, he noted.

With much of the borough’s infrastructure installed around 1908, there are projects that are 25-50 years overdue. Next on the list after upgraded meters is switching any lead pipes to copper or PVC, as required by law.

Eckhart said the alternative to the rate increase was to bill each property owner about $300 for a new meter.

“We could have done that, but we didn’t think that was what people could afford to do,” he said.