Springs may adjust wastewater bills
Intention is to distribute costs more fairly
The only thing worse than handling 3.3 billion cubic feet of sewage is getting paid for dealing with only half of it.
Last year, the Las Vegas Wastewater Treatment Plant treated that volume, but Colorado Springs Utilities billed for only 1.7 billion cubic feet.
Now the city is looking at adjusting its bills, not to generate more money but to distribute the cost more fairly.
It appears residential customers are getting the better end of the deal. Commercial and industrial customers account for only 18 percent of the treated volume but are billed for 35 percent of the total.
That and other inequities should be eliminated, Utilities officials said last week when they requested permission to adjust how wastewater bills are computed.
The City Council, acting as the Utility Board, told staffers to base this fall’s rate case on the revision.
“Anytime there’s a change in the proposed methodology for rates, it’s a situation where they have to justify the change,” Councilman Randy Purvis said. “I think they did so to the Utility Board.”
For decades, the city has based year-round wastewater bills on an average of the lowest two months of freshwater use from December to February.
Over time, that method has led to the city processing more sewage than it gets paid for, although the current rates have allowed the utility to recover its costs.
The city recently analyzed the problem as it prepares to bring a new wastewater plant — the J.D. Phillips Water Reclamation Facility at Mark Dabling and Garden of the Gods roads — online next month. It’s also drawing up plans for a third plant south of the city and looking at cost recovery issues.
The proposed method calls for basing wastewater rates yearround on the average water use from November through March or actual use, whichever is less.
“The intent is to get a better read over a longer period of time,” Purvis said, which makes it less likely someone could manipulate lower usage for billing purposes.
Wastewater service, unlike water consumption, isn’t measured.
“Without having meters on wastewater, there’s no great scientific way that any utility across the country does this,” Utilities spokesman Dave Grossman said. “I think this new method we’re proposing comes closest to the most accurate look.”
He said the changes will be “revenue neutral,” meaning the amount of money won’t change, although individual billings are likely to.
Bills could go up or down, but nearly two-thirds will have changes of less than 10 percent. In one analysis, the annual residential charge declined by $9.32.
Grossman said if the new method is approved, it would be used with Jan. 1, 2008, billings based on water usage in November and December.
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