NATCHEZ — Water bills for some local utility customers may soon be going down.

The Adams County Water Association initiated a new rate structure Jan. 1, changing its minimum charge from $14 for 2,000 gallons of water to a flat minimum of $10 a month for service.

Customers will then pay $2.75 for every thousand gallons of water they consume.

This means that water customers are only going to be paying for the water they actually use, ACWA General Manager Kenneth Herring said.

“People like elderly people and churches, they don’t use 2,000 gallons a month,” Herring said. “On the other side of that, if you are a larger user, (your bill) is only going to increase by about $1.75.”

According to the ACWA, this will lower the bills for approximately 800 users.

The new rate structure was decided after a 12-month study of other water associations around the country, Herring said.

The water association will also begin refunding meter deposits.

“The board decided we wanted to get out of the deposit business, the business of holding onto people’s money,” Herring said.

The refunds will be made as a credit to the individual customer accounts.

The initial credits, for those who had a deposit of less than $50, will be made in March. Approximately 2,100 connections qualify for this credit.

Those who have a deposit of $75 or less on record will be credited in March 2013, and anyone who has a deposit larger than that will receive their credit in March 2014.

Rather than making a deposit, new customers will pay a connection fee, Herring said.

The water association has also in the last month launched a new website on which customers can pay bills, start or stop service or even report a leak.

“We believe that this is the wave of the future, and we wanted to get there,” Herring said.

“We were trying to fix (the website) where (customers) don’t have to come all the way out to the water association.”

The website is located at www.adamscountywater.com.