Water Rate Updates

Water Rate Updates

Park City has updated water rates to further encourage water conservation. The update also ensures equity between customer classes (commercial, single-family residential, or multi-family residential). In general, this means that if a rate class uses approximately 40% of the water billed, it will pay approximately 40% of the cost of water. The fees you pay for water service fund the water department and are not used for other municipal use. All users will see an inflationary increase in the energy surcharge.

Included in this month’s Utility Bill is a copy of the new rate structure. Below is a summary of the changes, and ways that you can reduce your water bill.

Single Family Residential Accounts

Since the water rates for Single Family Residential (SFR) customers already had aggressive consumption tiers, there will be minimal impact from the rate changes. In fact, if a SFR customer uses less than 20,000 gallons per month, they will actually see a decrease in their water bill. Customers using more than 20,000 gallons per month will see an increase based on consumption.

No increase to the base rate occurred.

Multi-Family Residential Account

Like Single Family, water rates for Multi-Family Residential already have tiers and the water rate modifications enhance these tiers. The impact varies by meter size, but generally, the cost for below average users will decrease, and the cost for above average users will increase.

No increase to the base rate occurred.

Commercial

Commercial customers will see the biggest impact primarily due to two factors: 1) the Commercial customer class is paying less as a percentage than water used, and 2) there are only two existing tiers for Commercial customers and the second tier is rarely reached.

A 20% base rate increase was adopted for all Commercial customers. Previously, 33% of the total retail water produced by Park City was used by Commercial customers, but only 29% of the total revenue came from Commercial. Under the new rate structure, Commercial customers will contribute 32% of the total revenue.

Irrigation

Like Commercial, water rates for Irrigation only include two consumption tiers. To enhance incentives for water conservation, additional tiers now exist.

Base rate increases of 30% for ¾-inch, 70% for 1-inch, and 100% for 1.5-inch were adopted. Additionally, 1.5-inch, 2-inch, and 3-inch meters are combined into one meter rate, and as a result, 2-inch and 3-inch base rates were decreased to a 1.5-inch base rate. These base rate changes are needed to ensure the percentage of water used matches the percentage of revenue collected from irrigation customers.

Option to reduce your bill

Highest water users will be impacted the most. This reflects Park City’s main approach to water conservation by charging more for high water use to encourage customers to use less. Below are a few ideas to help customers reduce the impact to their water bill.

Use less water

This is the desired outcome of the new water rate structure, and it will save you money.

• Visit utahwatersavers.com for rebates for toilet replacement and smart controllers.
• Visit parkcity.watersmart.com with your account number to log in and see your hourly water use. Click on “Take Action” for a personalized list of water conservation activities you can select from to reduce your water use. Click on “Settings” to set up leak alerts, High Use Notifications, Bill Forecast Notifications, or Unplanned Use Notifications to help you manage your water use.
• Visit parkcity.org/landscape-incentive-program for our landscaping incentive program which pays customers up to $2 per square foot to remove turf grass and replace it with waterwise and firewise landscaping. Email savewater@parkcity.org for questions on the incentive program, or with any other water conservation questions you may have.

Select the best meter rate for your water needs

To help put customers in the optimal water rate structure based on their water needs, Commercial, Multi-Family, and Irrigation customers may choose what meter rate they want to be in without the expense of changing their meter. This will help high-use customers with small meter sizes, and low water use customers with large meters.

Email water@parkcity.org and we can help you select the most cost-effective meter rate for your water needs.