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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- One of your utility bills will soon go up.

Ottumwa City Council Member Keith Caviness says if a proposal to raise sewer-system rates is approved, residents will see a $5 increase this year and an additional $5 increase each year, for the next three years.

If the increase proves to be “sound,” residents can expect to pay an extra $3 in the years to come.

Caviness says this is not a choice for the city to decide upon.

“We are trying to do it as gently as we can, yet the DNR and the EPA told us we have no choice. They will either step-in and do it for us, or we will try to do it as comfortably, incrementally as we can. They don’t care. They’re willing to step-in and run our city business for us if we don’t.”

Caviness says he is just as upset about the increase as the Ottumwa residents.

“Several residents have told me that based on their water bill, they're probably going to see $6, or $7, or $8 a month more because they use more than the average family. It's very difficult for me to understand how people who are on a minimum, fixed, low income...how they're going to keep scraping up more money, and more money to pay these taxes.”

Caviness would prefer the rate to go up at a slower pace; however, there is a time-cap.

“We're being told right now, 17 years is the outside limit, and we're talking about a minimum $60 million investment by this community. We, as a council, have gone to Washington D.C. for the past eight or 10 years and have gotten some place in the neighborhood of $13, $14 million allocated to this project. But, that's a huge gap between what we're forcing our citizens to pay and it's almost mind-boggling.”