Photos: Talkeetna water and sewer woes

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The first bottle of water produced in 1988 by the current Talkeetna water system resides on the mantle at Latitude 62 on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, in Talkeetna.

TALKEETNA -- Talkeetna's aging water and sewer system, built in the late 1980s after floods fouled local wells with human waste, is bleeding money and in need of repair.

The quirky village of 700 year-round residents with a Denali backdrop fills with more than 100,000 water-drinking, toilet-flushing tourists and climbers every summer.

But it's the locals who say they're getting stuck with the utility bills -- there are about 200 residential or commercial connections -- and Talkeetna isn't big enough to shoulder the burden.

The water-sewer system is running in the red, losing about $110,000 in 2013, according to a 2014 study. And repairs are looming: the amount of coliform bacteria in wastewater flowing into a creek from Talkeetna's sewage lagoon last summer soared above state limits.

Officials at the Matanuska-Susitna Borough expect to ask for a 19 percent rate increase every year for the next five years, as recommended in the study, commissioned at the request of the Talkeetna Community Council to examine not just the system but the rate structure. Right now, the average residential water-sewer bill is about $90 a month, which is about the equivalent of an unmetered Anchorage customer. Commercial customers pay an average of $130.

The request will be part of the borough budget process getting underway this month, officials say.

READ MORE: Talkeetna bristles at proposed rate hike for troubled water-sewer utility