2012 Water Rates

Effective Jan. 1 2012, Denver Water’s rates will increase by 5.5 percent for all customers. Typical Denver residential customers will see their bills increase by $19.43 a year — an average of $1.62 per month. Typical suburban residential customers served by Denver Water will see an increase of $34.11 per year — an average of $2.84 per month. Commercial, industrial and government customers also will see a 5.5 percent increase.

Your water bill amount will vary depending on how much water you use. The more you use, the more you pay. Rates for Denver Water customers living inside the city remain among the lowest in the metro area, while rates for Denver Water residential customers in the suburbs still fall at or below the median among area water providers.

This is a Front Range water bill comparison that shows Denver Water’s 2012 rates against other utilities’ 2011 rates. Note, the comparison is based on 115,000 gallons of annual consumption — the average of all single-family residential customers in Denver Water’s service area. The average Denver residential customer uses 105,000 gallons of water per year.

Denver Water owns and maintains more than 3,000 miles of distribution pipe — enough to stretch from Los Angeles to New York — as well as 19 raw water reservoirs, 22 pump stations and four treatment plants. Ongoing rehabilitation and replacement of infrastructure is needed throughout the water distribution system, much of which dates back to post-World War II installation or earlier. We have cut costs where we can, but we need to be proactive to avoid putting reliable water service at risk.

In addition to a number of short-term major projects, Denver Water also plans to expand its system capacity over the next decade to meet the future needs of its customers by:

• Expanding the utility’s recycled water system.
• Enlarging Gross Reservoir to provide 18,000 acre-feet of new water supply.
• Developing gravel pits that store reusable water.
• Exploring ways to work with other water providers to bring more supplies to Denver Water’s system.

Denver Water has a long history of sound financial management, fiscal responsibility and efficiency. Our AAA bond rating is a reflection of that, allowing us to build projects at lower cost — savings we are able to pass along to our customers.

Denver Water is very conscious of the economic hardships everyone is facing. To help cut costs, we’ve made $10 million in permanent operating budget cuts and have launched an organization wide efficiency initiative to keep us as lean as possible.

The 2012 rate increase is about half of what the Board of Water Commissioners had anticipated last year. Denver Water looked very closely at its capital plan and found a balance between projects that could wait and projects we had to undertake to avoid putting reliable water service at risk.

Employees are working to find efficiencies wherever they can. And, Denver Water is scrubbing its capital project schedule to ensure we have the least impact on customer’s rates, while ensuring we get necessary work done to prevent system failure.

• Investing $24 million in new conduits and mains, as well as in repairing and replacing pipes, so that water quality is maintained and pipe breaks and service disruptions are minimized.
• Completing the valve replacement projects at Cheesman and Williams Fork dams. Valves control the flow of water from the dam.
• Protecting the watersheds by restoring forest health, thinning forests and completing other wildfire fuel reduction projects through its From Forests to Faucets partnership with the U.S. Forest Service.
• Expanding the recycled water system for irrigation, commercial and industrial use, freeing up drinking water for other purposes.
• See your rates at work for a more comprehensive list.

Denver Water is a municipal water utility funded through rates and new tap fees, not taxes. Denver Water does not make a profit. Our rates are designed to recover the costs of providing reliable, high-quality water service and to encourage efficiency by charging higher prices for increased water use. A significant portion of Denver Water’s annual costs do not vary with the amount of water sold and include maintenance of the system’s distribution pipes, reservoirs, pump stations and treatment plants. Denver Water also examines and adjusts its capital plan as necessary each year.