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Your 2010 Denver Water Rates
Effective February 2010, Denver Water’s rates will increase. On average, Denver residential customers will pay $40 more per year — an average of about $3.30 per month, or about $12 on a summer bill. Typical suburban residential customers served by Denver Water will see an increase of $51 per year — an average of $4.30 per month, or about $16 on a summer bill. The amount of your bill will vary depending on how much water you use. The more you use, the more you pay.
Even with the increase, rates for Denver Water customers living inside the city remain among the lowest in the metro area, while rates for suburban residential customers still fall at or below the median among area water providers.
Why is the Rate Increase Necessary?
Our most important responsibility is to ensure our community has a safe and reliable supply of clean water. Today, we are at a pivotal point. Our distribution system is aging. Over the long term, demand for water will continue to increase while the supplies to meet that demand will become increasingly limited. And the threat of climate change creates greater uncertainty with regard to our water supplies, 80 percent of which come from snow.
We are prepared to meet these challenges with our 10-year, $1.3 billion capital plan, which includes the following:
- Rehabilitating and upgrading old pipes and facilities throughout our distribution system.
- Denver Water’s distribution system includes more than 3,000 miles of pipe, enough to stretch from Los Angeles to New York.
- Creating new sources of supply.
- Customers’ disciplined conservation efforts are helping us keep the cost of supplying water down because over the long term, conservation is a cheaper supply option than building new storage facilities.
- Yet even with a successful conservation ethic, our community will need new water supplies in the future.
- To meet those needs, we plan to expand our recycled water system, enlarge Gross Reservoir by 18,000 acre-feet and continue converting old gravel pits into new water storage sites.
What We're Doing to Cut Costs
In these difficult economic times, we are stretching our budget as far as it will go. We have carefully managed our cash reserves, issued new low-interest debt and reduced our operating budget.
In 2009, we reduced operating expenditures by $20 million in response to changing economic conditions. We’ve also made decisions to fill job positions on a case-by-case basis.
We are very conscious of, and concerned with, the economic hardships we all are facing right now. At the same time, we have an obligation to provide high-quality water service to our customers, regardless of economic conditions. We need to take action now to repair, maintain and upgrade our system so we prevent putting reliable water service at risk.
Your Water Rates at Work
Denver Water is ramping up efforts to replace and rehabilitate aging infrastructure, much of which dates back to the World War II era. Our 10-year capital plan includes more than 300 projects.
Projects in 2010 include:
- increasing main replacements throughout the system;
- rehabilitating pipes and upgrading valves to extend their useful lives;
- making major upgrades at the Marston Treatment Plant;
- installing new valves at Cheesman Dam to replace those installed in the early 1900s; and
- installing a new hydropower turbine at Williams Fork Reservoir.