Water Budget Rates - Boulder

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Pathways to Lasting Solutions

“The Longest Yard”

Water Budget Rate Structures&

The City of Boulder, Colorado January 25, 2007

© 2006 Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. All Rights Reserved




Today’s Discussion

Rate Structures in General

Water Budget Rate Structures

Water Budgets and the CityDiscussion




What is a Rate Structure?

Typically consists of two components

Service charge

• Fixed charge, Readiness to Serve• Recover customer billing and metering costs

Volume charge• Unit charge based on amount of water used

• Variety of volumetric rate designs available

The design and organization of billing charges by customer

class in order to recover revenue requirements




Uniform Rate




Decreasing Block Rates




Seasonal Rate


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/water-budget-rates-boulder 7/25Pathways to Lasting Solutions

Uniform RateDecreasing Block RatesIncreasing Block Rates



Uniform RateDecreasing Block RatesWater Budget Rates





Water Budget Rates

Designed for resource efficiency Budget individualized for each customer’s

indoor usage and outdoor usage

Retains increasing block structure

Volumetric block thresholds dependent oncustomer’s usage patterns

Indoor allowance

Outdoor allowance



a er u ge a eComponents

Indoor allowancePeople per household

Building square footage

Number of bedrooms/bathrooms

Outdoor allowance

Irrigable area

Lot square footage

Weather considerations, evapotranspiration



y o ou er a erBudget Rates

Drought of 2002 - 2003 Mandatory water restrictions instituted

Goal:

Reduce water use by 25 percent, or 1.19million gallons between May 2002 and April2003

Goal met by November 2002 when 1.296

million gallons was conserved




Water restriction prompted Citizen involvementMore flexibility during drought (when and how much)

Preferred to know specific quantity of water needed

More education

City began investigating alternative ratestructures in June 2003Hired consultant to review various structures

Involvement included• Citizens

• Water Resource Advisory Board

• City Council




Staff, WRAB selected water budget structurefrom number of alternatives

City Council endorsed water budget rate structurein December 2004



ou er a er u ge a eStructure

5-tiered increasing block structure (volumetric)

Rates for each block are the same for each class

Block threshold based on each customer’smonthly budget

Block threshold stated as percent of total

monthly budget



ou er a er u ge a eStructure

Budget calculation based on customer classResidential – Indoor allowance + Outdoor allowance

Multifamily – Indoor allowance + Outdoor allowance

Nonresidential – Average Monthly Usage (AMU)

Irrigation – Outdoor allowance based on irrigable

area



Boulder Water Budget RateStructure

Rate(per 1,00 gal)

Block Size(% of budget)

Block 1 $1.95 (3/4 x base rate) 0% - 60%

Block 2 $2.60 (the "base rate") 61% - 100%

Block 3 $5.20 (2 x Base Rate) 101% - 150%

Block 4 $7.80 (3 x Base Rate) 151% - 200%

Block 5 $13.00 (5 X Base Rate) Greater than 200%



ou er es en a a erBudget Rates

Indoor allowanceSingle family – 7,000 gallons/month

Multifamily – 4,000 gallons/month/unit

Outdoor allowance

Irrigable area “pervious area”• Single family – 3-tiered gallons/sq ft threshold basis

– Tier 1: 0 to 5,000 sq ft @ 15 gal/sq ft

– Tier 2 : 5,001 to 14,000 sq ft @ 12 gal/sq ft

– Tier 3: >14,000 sq ft @ 10 gal/sq ft

• Multifamily – 15 gallons/sq ft

Allocated on a monthly basis using ET index

ET Index = Evapotranspiration Index



ou er onres en a




ou er onres en aWater Budgets

Commercial/IndustrialAverage Monthly Usage (AMU)

Irrigation Irrigable area “pervious area” – 15 gallons/sq ft

Allocated on a monthly basis using Et indexEt Index = Evapotranspiration Index




Single Family Example

Pervious area = 6,000 sq ft Indoor Annual Budget:

7,000 gal/month * 12 months = 84,000 gallons

Outdoor Annual Budget:

5,000 sq ft * 15 gallons/sq ft = 75,000 gallons

+ 1,000 sq ft * 12 gallons/sq ft = 12,000 gallons

Total Outdoor Allowance 87,000 gallons

Total Annual Budget 171,000 gallons

y u




y u(indoor/outdoor)

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

G a

l l o

n s

ng e am y xamp e




ng e am y xamp e(continued)

July usage = 30,000 gallons July budget:

7,000 gallons + 87,000 gallons * 20%

July budget = 25,000 gallons

July volume charges for 30,000 gallons usage:Block 1: 0 to 15,000 gallons: 15 Kgal * $1.95 = $29.25

Block 2: 15,000 to 25,000 gal: 10 Kgal * $2.60 = $26.00Block 3: 25,000 to 38,000 gal: 5 Kgal * $5.20 = $26.00

Total July Volume Charges: $81.25




What’s in Store for 2008

Continue to monitor changes in usage patterns Irrigable area adjustments

Right-of-Way adjustments

Reviewing commercial and industrial budget basis

Average monthly usage

Historical monthly usage

Indoor/outdoor allocations

Continued community involvement



P th t L ti S l ti

Discussion

Water Budget Rates - Boulder

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