Gary sewer rates rise for McDowell County customers after council vote
Gary’s sewer tariff now sets a $24.81 monthly minimum for fewer than 400 customers, as the city moves toward PSD operation of the system.
Gary readopted its sewer tariff by resolution on June 16, setting new charges for fewer than 400 customers in the city and putting another deadline on a system already under state scrutiny. The June 28 public notice says the revised tariff applies to bills dated June 1, 2026, and later, and stays in place until changed again.
Under the new schedule, sewer service will cost $7.27 for every 1,000 gallons of water used each month. The minimum monthly bill is $24.81, which includes a $3.00 service charge, and the flat industrial rate is $182.00 a month, also including the service charge. Customers who do not pay on time will face a 10 percent penalty, and the notice says a $50.00 water deposit is required.
The notice also spells out a legal path for complaints. It says the ordinance becomes effective 45 days after adoption and publication as required by law, and aggrieved customers can petition the West Virginia Public Service Commission. That process matters in Gary because the sewer system has been in regulatory trouble for years, with the commission opening a proceeding on December 30, 2022, and later finding in March 2024 that Gary’s sewer operations qualified as a distressed utility under Senate Bill 739 of 2020.
The tariff change is tied to a larger fight over who will run the system. A separate public notice on June 9, 2026, set a June 16 hearing at Gary City Hall, 25 Smoke Eaters Drive, on an ordinance calling for the McDowell County Public Service District to operate and maintain the city’s municipal sewer system. Earlier notices show the rate issue has been moving through public process for months: a June 11 notice said the main purpose was to raise sewer rates, an April 16, 2024 notice said a proposed ordinance would increase residential, commercial and industrial sewer rates by 17.7 percent, and a Dec. 10, 2024 notice also reported a tariff increase.
The latest increase lands in a small and shrinking customer base. Gary’s 2020 census population was 762, while McDowell County had 19,111 people in 2020 and an estimated 16,878 in 2025. In a community that small, each rate change falls on a narrow pool of households and small landlords already carrying the cost of a sewer system that regulators have treated as distressed.
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