“A north-end rate hike stems from higher costs, company officials say.Citing the cost of new fire safety and service improvements, the North Bainbridge Water Company has applied for a rate increase that could take effect next month.Under the proposed rates, customers who consume 846 cubic feet of water per month – last year’s average – would pay 24 percent more than they do now. Heavier users would see steeper hikes.NBWC manager Arlene Buetow said the rate increases are largely due to the cost of replacing outdated water lines and other infrastructure.The NBWC has been in business since 1915, she said, so you can imagine that we have a lot of pipe in the ground that eventually needs to be replaced.For years, the NBWC has been upgrading its systems, with improvements financed in part by a 32 percent rate hike approved by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission two years ago.But since then, the NBWC has faced added costs in meeting new design and construction standards, which seek to improve safety and decrease homeowners’ insurance costs by making the island’s water systems suitable for fire-fighting operations.(City officials) have a long-range goal of bringing that (insurance) rating down, Buetow said, and they are doing it through us.To enable the use of fire hydrants in older neighborhoods, the city now requires many antiquated water mains – sometimes as small as 3/4 inch – to be replaced with high-capacity, 8-inch mains, which cost $60 to $70 dollars per foot to install, Buetow said.Since 1998, the NBWC has installed five and a half miles of such pipe, she said, replacing more than 10 percent of its total distribution system. The company has also completed several new hydraulic loops, an industry standard for water grids that improves fire flow and reliability by allowing water to reach a given point from two different routes….The cost of running a business on Bainbridge Island has gone up, Buetow said, as well as the cost of operating in an increased regulatory environment.The rate hike must be approved by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. Regulators at that agency say they set rates at a level that will compensate the company for interest paid on loans, and give them a 12.5 percent return on equity invested in improvements.Under the proposed increase, NBWC customers would pay $30.96 dollars a month for 846 cubic feet of water, the average level of consumption. By comparison, customers of the South Bainbridge Water Company pay $27.47 per month for the same amount of water, and those in Winslow–served by the city–pay $29 a month. However, making direct comparisons between service purveyors can be misleading, water company officials agreed, because a variety of factors – such as average spacing between houses, changes in elevation, number of wells and need to replace old infrastructure – influence operating costs in different systems.The new NWBC rates could take effect after the current period of public comment ends June 1.The rates will be based on a complete audit and analysis of the company’s current expenses and capital needs, said Danny Kermode of the WUTC.Also under review by Kermode is NBWC’s step rate structure – which, like the programs of other water utilities, charges more money per cubic foot to those customers who use large quantities of water. Murden Cove resident Richard Weaver, who waters his landscaping extensively over the summer, said he objects to the new NBWC step rates, which, compared to the old rates, would charge between 50 to 100 percent more for monthly water consumption exceeding 2001 cubic feet.When we put in our landscaping seven years ago, it was on the assumption that water would be available at reasonable rates, Weaver said from a phone in his yard, where he was installing water-efficient sprinkler heads. People who have extensive landscaping do not have the option of simply stopping watering it, Weaver said. Now they will see a several-thousand-dollar investment at a time turn brown and die.Kermode said that the step rates stem from a state mandate to conserve water. They are the most efficient way of being fair but still encouraging conservation, he said.The NBWC is also subject to an array of new permitting requirements, Buetow said, and permits and other fees have become more expensive.Yet despite the growing needs of a rapidly changing island, Buetow said the influx of new homeowners is not a cause of higher water rates. That’s because developers must pay a contribution in aid of construction to cover the costs hookup and future improvements to the system.In helping to pay for new, bigger mains, almost 50 percent of the costs are borne by new people, she said. Using water wisely on the island is especially important, said city assistant director of public works Lance Newkirk, because, unlike many mainland areas, Bainbridge relies solely on rain to recharge its water supply.Excessive water use can also negatively impact salmon, he said, because some wells draw from groundwater areas that feed streams through springs.But resource conservation and landscaping aren’t mutually exclusive, Newkirk said.People, with educational methods, can reduce their water consumption, he said, by using a mix of native plants that are used to an overabundance and underabundance of water within our natural (precipitation) cycle.”