Customers of the Upper Montgomery Joint Authority could be facing another rate increase. On Tuesday, officials at the wastewater treatment plant presented a draft budget for the new fiscal year that calls for a 13 percent hike.

        The new rate would add $72.68 to the average user's annual bill, according to an estimate from Glenn Quinn, the facility's executive superintendent during the monthly meeting of the authority's board of directors.

        Quinn said the average quarterly bill would increase from $139.80 to $157.97.

        The additional money would be utilized to help authority officials fund a planned expansion of the plant at 1100 Mensch Dam Road in Pennsburg.

        The new rates would take effect May 1, the beginning of the authority's new fiscal year. Quinn said he expect the directors to vote on the final budget in April.

        According to Quinn, the extra cash would help officials secure a $25 million low-interest, 40-year loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

        "We need to have the money to show the U.S.D.A. we can pay the debt on the loan," he said during the meeting.

        Members of the authority's budget committee, which includes board members Grant Boyer, Paul Decker and Bill Ingram, made tentative plans to meet Thursday afternoon to examine the numbers.

        Last year, the authority's directors approved a budget with an eight percent rate hike.

        The proposed draft budget, which totals $1.763 million,  holds the line on operating costs, according to the superintendent.

        "We had to adjust a few line items," Quinn said.

        According to the superintendent, authority officials are eyeing potential rate increases at a similar rate for the next two years.

        "That number of that rate increase next year could change," he said during the meeting. "It could be 12 percent or 10 percent."

        After the meeting, the superintendent described the proposed rate increase a good outcome for system users.

        He said that while UMJA officials were expecting to utilize a 20-year municipal bond to fund the upgrades, they forecast rate increases of 20 and 30 percent.

        Previously, Quinn has stated that the planned upgrades are required by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), are not optional.

        Upgrades to the plant, which serves approximately 3,300 customers in Red Hill, Pennsburg and East Greenville would allow for better management of that flow, eliminate an antiquated holding tank, make legally required upgrades to the facility and facilitate future improvements.

        The financial influx would also allow authority officials to modernize the plant, which was built in the 1960s, in preparation for stricter nutrient removal standards, according to Quinn.