By John Summers | April 6, 2026

PORT ALLEN — West Baton Rouge Parish residents and businesses could see sewer bills increase by roughly 15 percent under an ordinance introduced at last week's Parish Council meeting — a hike that officials say they fought hard to keep as low as possible after a state-mandated study initially recommended an increase nearly seven times larger.

The proposal goes to a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, at the West Baton Rouge Parish Governmental Building, 880 N. Alexander Ave., Port Allen.

What the increase would mean for your bill

According to parish figures, the average residential customer uses about 6,000 gallons of water per month. At that usage level, a monthly sewer bill would increase from $23.50 to $27.04 — a difference of $3.54 per month, or roughly $42 per year.

At the maximum residential cap of 15,000 gallons, a bill would go from $43.75 to $50.35 — an increase of $6.60 per month, or about $79 per year.

For commercial customers, the monthly minimum would rise from $40.00 to $46.00. Commercial accounts carry no usage cap.

Rates unchanged since 2008

Parish Utilities Director Adrian Genre told the council during October budget hearings that sewer rates have not increased since 2008 — an 18-year freeze that officials said was no longer sustainable.

"Obviously, there's more, there's less, but it'll just give you some sort of average," Genre said of the projected impact. "That's from 18 years of not having raised anything."

The state study — and the pushback

The rate increase stems from a study conducted by Eisner Amper, a third-party firm, under Louisiana Department of Health guidelines. Genre presented the study's findings to the council in February. On the water side, the firm found the parish's current structure sustainable and proposed no increase. Sewer was a different story.

Eisner Amper's initial draft recommended a 95 percent sewer rate increase.

"Obviously, we strongly disagreed with that," Genre said.

Genre said he worked with Parish President Jason Manola, Director of Finance Chance Stephens, and Chief of Administration Phillip Bourgoyne to challenge the firm's analysis, providing additional documentation on capital outlay, day-to-day operations, the parish's customer base, and current financial position.

After that first round of pushback, Eisner Amper revised its recommendation to 38 percent. The parish pushed back again.

"We still felt like that was not where we needed to be," Genre said.

The final sticking point was a proposed $160,000 annual asset reserve fund tied to the Westport sewer station. The firm argued the parish needed to demonstrate it could replace the facility in a catastrophic failure. Parish officials countered that the general sales tax fund could cover the reserve and offered to formalize that commitment by ordinance — pointing to Iberville Parish, which had taken the same approach. Eisner Amper accepted the argument, and the final recommendation came in at 15 percent.

"This is so important for people to understand," Councilman Brady Hotard said during the council's February discussion of the study. "The press will say sewer rates raised 15 percent, but they didn't see — and they weren't in the meetings — how much we went to bat for them to fight for what is truly accurate."

Why the increase matters beyond the bill

According to the draft ordinance, the state requires a 1.15 sustainability factor — meaning a system's revenues must cover at least 115 percent of its operating costs — before a parish qualifies for future infrastructure grant funding. The ordinance states WBR Parish's current rates do not meet that threshold.

The ordinance also authorizes annual Consumer Price Index adjustments with council approval, meaning future rate increases could follow without a separate public hearing process each time.

What happens next

The council introduced the ordinance March 26 but took no final vote. The public hearing is:

Thursday, April 9, 2026 | 5:30 p.m. West Baton Rouge Parish Governmental Building 880 N. Alexander Ave., Port Allen

Residents who want to speak must sign in before the public comment period. If adopted April 9, the ordinance takes effect upon signature of Parish President Jason Manola.

Average monthly residential usage figure provided by Madison Cacioppo, WBR Parish Public Information Officer, March 31, 2026.