UPDATE (8:59 P.M., 9/6): After hearing public comment at tonight's meeting, city council unanimously approves to continue with the process of increasing water rates. Water rates for residents will be increasing.   

A public hearing about the increase in water rates in the City of Bakersfield will be held on Wednesday.

City Council members voted to increase water rates for 46,000 customers back in July. The process will begin over the next two years, starting in Oct. when it will increase by 16 percent.

The increase will then rise by 13 percent on July 1 of next year and by another 7.6 percent the year after that.

Council staff proposed the three-part increment after state regulations were released about how much of the cancer-causing compound 1,2,3-trichloropropane, or TCP, was present in drinking water.

Water districts with TCP of more than five parts per trillion will be required to filter their water beginning in Jan.

The City Council can vote after comments from the public from today's hearing, which starts at 5 p.m.