Powder Springs Considering Restructuring Water, Sewer Fees

Powder Springs is considering restructuring how it charges for water and sewer, which would result in lower rates for those who use less and higher rates for those who use more.   

One reason for the effort would be to help compensate for the , which is where Powder Springs runs the utilities through.

Another would be to update the ordinance behind the rates because it is 20-plus years old.

Yet another is to address Georgia’s Water Stewardship Act, which encourages water conservation through lower rates for lower usage.

“All that means is the more you use, the more you pay per thousand gallons,” Bill Powell with the Georgia Rural Water Association told the City Council at Wednesday’s work session.

Powell has been working with city on a free water rate study for several months. He said his efforts are to “set rates fair and equitably to all users so the income generated will be enough to pay all operating expenses and generate a small reserve.”

The rate restructuring is simply something for council members to consider and isn’t scheduled for an upcoming vote.

“If they decide to consider this proposal further, there will be public hearings scheduled so that citizens will have time to give their opinion,” City Clerk Dawn Davis told Patch via email.

The proposed restructuring is so unlike the way customers are billed now that it would be nearly impossible to compare the two, Director Greg Ramsey said.

“It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison,” he said.

It would incorporate a Residential Equivalent Unit (REU) system for businesses, schools and other facilities different from houses—similar to the Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) in the . The difference is the ERUs are based on a businesses square footage; the methodology behind REUs varies from business to business.

Examples Powell gave are number of seats for a restaurant and number of beds for a nursing home.

The number of REUs would then be multiplied by a base fee that is charged before any water is used.

Below is what the proposed structuring looks like. It includes the six-tiered rates for water that goes up the more that is used. The city is now on a three-tiered system.

The base charge, debt service, and admin charge are accumulated before any usage.

To figure how much you’d be paying for water or sewer, you’d match the number of gallons you used with the appropriate decimal and multiply that by the number of gallons. An example is given below the rate schedules.  

Water

• Base charged: $4.70 (Facilities other than houses would multiply their number of REUs to figure their base charge)
• Debt service: $0.46
• Admin charge: $2
• 1-2,000 gallons: .0045
• 2,001-5,000: .00475
• 5,001-10,000: .005
• 10,001-20,000: .00525
• 20,001-50,000: .0055
• 50,000+: .00575

Sewer

• Base charge: $6.82
• Debt service: $0.59
• 1-2,000 gallons: .00653
• 2,001-5,000: .00689
• 5,001+: .00725

Examples, based on 4,200 gallons of monthly usage for a house

• Water: $4.70 + $0.46 + $2 + $9 (2,000 gallons x .0045) + $10.45 (remaining 2,200 gallons x .00475) = $26.61
• Sewer: $6.82 + $0.59 + $13.05 (2,000 gallons x .00653) + $15.15 (remaining 2,200 gallons x .00689) = $35.61 (so your total bill for water and sewer would be $62.21)

Here are some numbers of interest provided to council members by Powell:

• Monthly projected revenue from water (if restructuring was approved): $190,252
• Monthly projected revenue from sewer: $242,119
• Annual projected revenue from water: $2,283,019
• Annual projected revenue from sewer: $2,905,428
• Total projected revenue: $5,188,447
• City's annual operating budget for water: $2,248,000
• Annual operating budget for sewer: $2,832,000
• Total operating budget: $5,080,000
• Annual debt service for water: $39,500
• Annual debt service for sewer: $48,000
• Total debt service: $87,500
• Total annual budget for sewer and water: $5,167,500