Cost of Water Service Report Released: Water Rates Increases Projected

This past Friday, NID released their long-awaited Cost of Service Study (COS). The COS was requested by the NID Board after they approved a water rates increase of 5.72 percent and cut 5 percent of overall District costs in 2019. The COS is supposed to accurately detail how much NID spends to manage and deliver water to both treated and raw water customers.

One of the main findings of the report states: 

The historical analysis indicates, on average, treated operations consume 53.7% of the system’s operating costs while raw operations consume 46.3% of the system’s operating costs. For raw water customers to achieve consistency with the COS consumption percentage, their revenue contribution (approx. 32%, see Table 4 page 5) must increase to 46.3%. 

To summarize, it appears that NID must raise water rates. However, overall the report raises more questions than answers. SYRCL applauds NID for taking this step towards fiscal responsibility, but urges NID to think about these concerning findings in light of its history of spending on the Centennial Dam project without any sustainable funding plan. SYRCL looks forward to hearing more during the Board workshop this Wednesday.