Bad news has arrived for anyone clinging to hope that city officials’ warnings about sky-high sewer rates was a case of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”

The wolf is at the door.

Residential sewer rates will make a double-digit jump in St. Joseph, effective July 1.

Craig Brown, a sewer rate consultant from Black & Veatch, recommended a 17 percent increase last week during a meeting with City Council members. He said rates must rise to fund the city’s massive project to reduce combined sewer overflows and to cover salaries for six new employees.

The actual increase will be smaller, as council members decided to cut the number of new employees to four. The increase will cost the average resident slightly less than $50 per year.

The decision to add employees came just one day after a group of workers called City Employees United called for the city to stop adding personnel until it could afford to give current employees raises.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t think we ought to add anybody,” Deputy Mayor Mike Hirter said.

Don Gilpin, the city’s superintendant of wastewater operations, explained the additional tasks his employees had to undertake to meet new federal regulations. He said the city needed four maintenance workers and two lab workers, one of whom would focus on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Capacity, Management, Operation and Maintenance Program.

“The additional personnel are going to be needed to keep our head above water, literally,” Mr. Gilpin said.

Council members agreed to add the lab workers, but cut the number of new maintenance employees to two.

City Manager Vince Capell said the city was “blameless and faultless” in its decision to raise rates, as federal regulations have additional work for the sewer department. Either the city raises sewer rates and payroll, or it spends even more money to pay fines that would come down from the Environmental Protection Agency.

“At least in the sewer department — it’s not pleasant for everyone — but at least we have a way to pay for it,” Mr. Capell said.

The city raised rates 15 percent last year in preparation for the sewer and wastewater upgrades. In addition to the jump in rates scheduled for July 1, the Black & Veatch study proposed increases for the next five years of 18 percent in 2010-11, 19 percent in 2011-12 and 2012-13 and 8 percent in 2013-14.

“This is the first step in the sewer Armageddon that we knew we were going to have,” Mayor Ken Shearin said.

Clinton Thomas can be reached at clintonthomas@npgco.com.