The City of Longmont, Colorado charges water and wastewater system development fees
(SDFs) to all new customers. The fees are designed to recover a proportionate share of the
costs of water and wastewater system capacity required to serve new customers. Although
this structure is believed to be equitable to the vast majority of new customers, City staff
believed that the existing structure was not cost responsive for certain large users with
unusual water and wastewater characteristics. The utilities' water and wastewater SDF's were historically charged according to water
meter size. A comprehensive review of water use by meter size showed a clear pattern of
oversizing of nonresidential meters. In very few instances was the full capacity of the
meter being used. In accordance with traditional rate and fee methodology, existing
capacity units had been used in developing SDF's. An analysis of commercial accounts
with four-inch water meters indicated 67% did not exceed the continuous flow rate for a
three inch meter (2.3 MG per month). In the past few years the City has attracted nonresidential customers who intend to use
large quantities of water and fully maximize their potential meter capacity. In many
cases, their processes discharged highly concentrated effluent. It was clear to City staff that these customers were not
paying the full share of their impact on the water and wastewater systems under existing
SDF's. A new SDF was developed for all new nonresidential customers with an estimated
water flow rate in excess of either the safe peak or continuous flow capacities for a three inch
water meter. The SDF's were developed using the equity buy-in method and are based
on water system average day, peak day, and peak hour capacities and wastewater treatment
plant peak month flow and strength capacities.
This paper shows the development of large nonresidential water and wastewater SDFs and
gives examples of resulting SDFs for typical customers. This paper is for utility
managers and financial directors who wish to implement fair impact fees to large
nonresidential customers. Includes tables, figure.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 190 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 8 |
