The sum of $400,000 is more than a trickle in a village’s budget, but that is the amount Tarrytown is saving annually by having repaired some big leaks in its water supply’s infrastructure.

Fixing those leaks takes on an even greater importance as the result of a 24.7% water rate increase decided upon late last month by the New York City Water Board. Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow and Irvington get their water from the Big Apple’s water supply flowing from upstate. Irvington draws its water from the Town of Greenburgh’s water system.

Increases to village consumers do not necessarily match the total hike imposed by New York City. Any raise in water rates would have to be approved by each village’s Board of Trustees. According to Tarrytown’s Treasurer Jim Hart, “the rate of increase decided upon is influenced by a variety of factors.” He pointed out that the last water rate increase for Tarrytown users was 1.8%, less than half of New York City’s hike to Westchester communities that use its water.

“The way the village has done it for the past couple of years is to just increase the water rates based on expenses we’ve had for water,” Hart said.

“We would have to evaluate our expenses from last year and see how we performed financially, and we are going to see what the implications of raising the rates are,” Sleepy Hollow Administrator Anthony Giaccio said, adding the Board of Trustees would prefer not to raise rates, “but may not have a choice.”

“There is no question that significant changes in water rates by New York City will directly impact the Irvington Water Department,” said Village Administrator Larry Schopfer. “We’ll review the revised rate schedule closely to determine the course of our water rates.”

Irvington boosted the water and sewer rate in 2006 a whopping 65%, after noting that its expenses related to purchasing and delivering water were $500,000 more than it was collecting annually from consumers. Since then, rates have gone up twice, once by 7% and then by 21%. Prior to 2006, it had held rates steady for 15 years.

The dollar amount New York receives for water from the villages generally represents no more than half, and often less than that, of the total bill homeowners are charged for their water usage.

Tarrytown’s cost of water for this most recent fiscal year will come to approximately $679,000 as opposed to about $1.1 million it had paid in past years, Village Treasurer Hart said. Administrator Michael Blau said the State Comptroller’s Office audited the Water Department in 2003 and found a water loss of about 40%.

“We were buying a lot more water we weren’t selling,” he said. The first three-quarters of the current fiscal year was 13% a generally acceptable amount, according to Blau, who said “the system has become much more efficient.” Part of that efficiency can also be attributed to the new water meters installed village wide, replacing old meters which often did not record low flows, particularly to large commercial users.

The bulk of repair and improvement to the Tarrytown water system has come in the past several years. One of the largest leaks contributing to the village’s water loss came when it flowed from damaged pipes into the Tarrytown Lakes, making the source difficult to find, Mayor Drew Fixell said. It was only after a company specializing in discovering leaks that the source was uncovered. The mayor said that main line pipe and valve replacements, a multi-year, multi-million dollar project, were also a factor in the savings.

Tarrytown, however, has been faced with a larger than usual number of consumers who have been delinquent in paying their water bills. The delinquent total amounted to $73,491.33. Trustees voted several months ago to attach unpaid water bills to the property tax owed by the late payers. Those taxes were due by the last day of this past month.

“We made every effort to contact the delinquent payers, by letter and sometimes by phone,” Treasurer Hart explained. “The overdue water bill amount is the highest it’s been in my years here.”