Nearly 40,000 residents around Grand Junction will have to pay more for water service beginning in 2013.

If your provider is the Clifton Water District , this rate hike will affect you.

According to David Reinertsen, assistant manager for the Clifton Water District, each customer will have to pay a system investment fee of $2.50 to be used for system improvements and construction projects throughout the year.

On top of that fee, the district will be increasing its base-rate by $3 per month.

So if you use the minimum of 3,000 gallons of water each month, you'll now be paying $20 a month rather than $14.50.

However, if you use 7,000 gallons of water a month, your water utility bill will be double what you were paying in 2012; more like $30 per month instead of $14.50.

The district hadn't had a rate increase since 2005, it placed a freeze on rate adjustments due to the struggling economy.

But because the economy hasn't bounced back as quickly as some would have hoped, the district is forced to raise rates now.

"Our district reserves are starting to go down and not be replenished and so the rate increase was determined to help off-set some of those increased costs, also [to] provide the district funds needed to implement some delayed capital projects we had put off because of the economy," said Reinertsen.

The Clifton Water District doesn't collect property tax revenue as other water providers do, so it operates exclusively through income generated by water rates and tap fees, according to officials.

On top of funding existing and future maintenance projects, water officials hope the increased rate will encourage water conservation in a time when we've been facing drought-like conditions.