The Water Works and Sewer Board of Greenville is raising the rate of water and sewer usage starting Nov. 1.

For water, the first 2,000 gallons will be increasing 59 cents, the next 48,000 gallons will be increasing 36 cents and more than 50,000 gallons will be increasing 29 cents. As for sewer, the first 2,000 gallons will increase 58 cents and more than 2,000 gallons will increase 19 cents.

Joby Norman, chairman of Waterworks and Sewer Board of Greenville, said the cost of operations goes up every year.

“In the past, we’ve waited four or five years to do a rate increase, so now what we’ve been trying to do is smaller increases annually or semi-annually,” Norman said. “The main reason is to keep up with the cost of operations.”

The board does its annual budget in September and the rate will increase starting November 1. The rate is being increased to meet bonded debt requirements and operational costs.

“We’re actually searching for new sources of water and that costs money,” Norman said. “If we have to test a well, we have to pay for that upfront. We have to have money available to search for new sources of water.”