At a recent meeting of the Richardson City Council, officials were briefed on the North Texas Municipal Water District’s (NTMWD) proposal to raise member cities’ wholesale rates for treated water and wastewater.
NTMWD currently serves 2 million people across 10 counties in North Texas, including the cities of Richardson, Frisco, Plano, and McKinney.
While NTMWD will provide its final projections for water and wastewater rates at the end of July, it has advised member cities that it plans to increase these by 11% and 7%, respectively, according to Community Impact.
Currently, NTMWD charges its member cities $3.39 per 1,000 gallons of treated water. This would see an increase to $3.77 per 1,000 gallons.
The increases proposed for its wastewater rates differ between the regional system and that of the Upper East Fork Interceptor, reported as 7% and 8%, respectively.
This would mean that those on the regional system would pay $2.75 per 1,000 gallons of wastewater and those on the Upper East Fork Interceptor would pay $1.89 per 1,000 gallons.
NTMWD’s solid waste rates, which are not projected to increase, are set at $38.25 per ton.
Its rates are determined by its own expenditures, which include flows, critical repairs, system expansions, and assessments.
This fiscal year, NTMWD enlarged and renovated four water treatment plants in Wylie and constructed the first new regional water source seen in Texas in three decades — Bois d’Arc Lake.
Richardson City Council discussed the potential implications of NTMWD’s proposed fee hikes.
“There’s not many businesses that can pass 11%, 10%, 12% [or] 15% [increase] to their customers and stay in business,” Council Member Ken Hutchenrider said during the briefing, according to Community Impact. “I would once again [ask], on behalf of all of our residents and constituents, that [the NTMWD] continue to hone in on that as much as possible. I constantly worry as I continue to see our water and wastewater rates go up.”
As reported by The Dallas Express in January, Frisco residents saw a bump in their minimum water bill of 8%, rising from $18.95 to $20.47 a month, as the city authorities passed on the 13.4% rate increase received from NTMWD. Other utility bill increases were seen in sewer and solid waste services, from $26.73 to $27.53 and $17.00 to $21.00, respectively.
While Richardson Director of Communications Greg Sowell explained that it is still unknown whether NTMWD’s proposed changes would affect residents’ water bills in 2024, there is a new methodology for determining cities’ annual minimum water allocations that could result in a prorated reduction, according to Community Impact.
A city’s minimum water allocation is set yearly based on historical usage. If it uses less, it can get a prorated reduction of one-third of the overages, as explained by NTMWD Public Communications Manager Kathleen Vaught, per Community Impact.
Prior to 2020, a city was given a benchmark by NTMWD based on its highest annual water demand, requiring it to purchase this amount.
More changes in this billing methodology are still in store, with it slated to rely partly on these annual minimums and actual water usage from 2029. From 2033 onward, the five-year rolling window of water usage will determine a city’s annual minimum.
In the case of Richardson, City Manager Don Magner reported that the city saved approximately $1.47 million this fiscal year by reducing its minimum water allocation, according to Community Impact.
It went from more than 11 billion gallons in usage in the 2020-2021 fiscal year to approximately 10.59 billion gallons in the current fiscal year.