Cheney water rates to go up

Cheney water rates are going up — again.

City Council members voted unanimously at their July 23 meeting to approve a 10 cent increase in usage rates from $1.47 per 100 cubic feet (CF) of water — about 748 gallons — to $1.57/100 CF. The change also comes with a new, tiered water usage rate for residential customers who use 3,000 cubic feet or more per month. Customers exceeding this will be charged an additional $3.14 per 100 CF.

As an example, a customer using up to 4,000 cubic feet would be billed $47.10 for the first 3,000 feet, and an additional $31.40 for the final 1,000 cubic feet. The increase will take effect today (Aug. 15).

“The new rate will apply to water meter reads after Aug. 15,” Public Works Director Todd Ableman said in an Aug. 13 email. “The city reads water meters mid-month.”

The council previously approved a 5 percent increase in water base and usage rates at its Dec. 6, 2018 meeting. Those rates went into effect Jan. 15, 2019.

The latest increase comes on the heels of a water-use study done by the FCS Group and presented to the council at its June 25 meeting. Two of four alternatives presented could be implemented immediately, study authors said at the time.

Both rate proposals would target residential water usage as the water study done by FCS indicated most of the city’s problems with supply and demand stem from this area. Neither of the two proposed alternatives changed the base rate of $10.50, with Alternative 1 proposing a four-tiered approach that dropped the usage rate to $1.10/100 CF up to 800 cubic feet, kept it at $1.47/100 CF to 3,200 cubic then raised it to $2.94 at 3,201 cubic feet and again to $5.88 at 6,501 cubic feet.

Alternative 2 kept the usage rate at $1.47/100 CF, but utilized a communications scheme at each of four tiers to try to get water users to be more economical in their consumption.

Ableman said the city elected to use Alternative 2, but with some modifications. Whereas the FCS Group study looked at and recommended implementing usage changes on residential fees, the council approved an increase in the usage rate that applies to single-family, multi-family and commercial customers, with a tiered rate beginning at 3,000 cubic feet for just single-family users.

“A single tiered rate is less confusing as we start to look at a more comprehensive look at all rate structures,” Ableman said. “A multi-tiered rate which includes conservation is still in discussion, but there is a need to evaluate commercial usage to evaluate overall revenues when proposing multiple tiered rate structure.”

In an Aug. 9 press release on its website, the city said the additional revenue from the increased water usage rates would help fund infrastructure improvements “to ensure adequate supply of safe drinking water and water for future irrigation needs in the city.”

The city also recently brought online a re-drilled Well 3, capable of producing 1,100 gallons per minute, as part of its efforts to improve its water delivery system.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].