S2_ConservationEfficiency - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Section 2 Conservation and Efficiency Technical Roundtable Table 2-6 City of Westminster -Water Conservation Rate Structure with higher per 1,000 gallons rates during the winter than summer. Toilet dams and faucet aerators offered for free to customers. 1980 -1984 Ciiy manager wants to implement toilet replacement rebate program. 1991 Water rate study conducted and higher winter rates were eliminated. As a result, summer rates increased. 1992 Water rate structure was realigned to 3 residential blocks ~rowtn rate was exceeding c;ity's abuity to provide tot water supply, so conservation oriented rates had Ciiy Council support. Utility staff does not believe that rebate program will result insubstantial increase to water supply, since city uses wastewater effluent to make required returns on transferred agricultural water. In order to ensure revenue requirements without impacting low income and low water using customers, city management added a 4th block to the water rate structure aimed at discouraging high residential water use. A warm, dry summer resulted in higher than average water use, resulting in strong customer reaction to high water bills as a result of the conservation oriented rates. Over 2,000 customer complaints were received and the 4th block was eliminated. 1995 - 2006 Finance Department, responsible for utility billing, Ciiy management initially supports measure to cut meter periodically floats proposal to reduce utility costs by reading costs without understanding impacts on customer reducing meter reading frequency to every 2 months. response to conservation water rate structure. Water resources staff must provide justification for continuation of monthly meter reading. Utility billing staff does not actively follow up on high water use report program that is generated that allows high water users to be identified. 2000 Ciiy council approves adding 2nd commercial block based No opposition from commercial users. Second block did on meter size. not include irrigation accounts due to improper meter sizing of these accounts. 2005 New utility billing program is implemented 2006 Discussions between utility New utility billing system has limited data analysis capabilities. The linkage with the GIS database program that links water billing data to building department, tax assessor and GIS parcels is no longer supported by city's information technology department. Historical customer water billing data is also no longer available in progress. Outcome unknown. departments on restoring water use analysis capabilities of billing program, including historical customer water use data and GIS capabilities. Table 2-7 Cit of Westminster - Water Ta Fee Im lementation Histo ~- 1977-2002 Water and Sewer tap fees based solely on meter size 1996-2001 Analysis of peak and annual water use by customer type and meter size is conducted in order to better understand and characterize residential and commercial demand patterns 2002 Water tap fee structure modified to charge water resources fee based on estimated annual water use. Data from HBA study and data logging used to support this approach. Treated Water Investment fee continues to be based on meter size, but datalogging allows better sizing of meters, especially for commercial and irrigation _ accounts. 2002 Irrigation water tap fee is changed and based on landscape area and type, rather than meter size. Developers lobby against most tap fee increases Datalogging of accounts was not considered until residential water use study jointly funded by HBA shows the efficacy of the approach. residential and commercial builders) and city's community development and economic development staff is conducted for buy-in. No strong opposition is experienced. bluegrass landscaping for esthetic reasons while tap fee structure penalized developers installing bluegrass FINAL DRAFT 2-17