Sewer Service Rates and Fees

How Residential Sewer Service Charges are Calculated

Residential Sewer Service Charges Are Based on Winter Water Use. Each residential customer is assigned a user class based on water usage during the winter months. Winter water usage generally reflects the amount of water used indoors and drained into the sanitary sewer system. Charges are based on three levels of use:

LOW-WATER USERS with 25% or less than the average winter water use.

AVERAGE-WATER USERS with 26% to 199% of the average winter water use; and

HIGH-WATER USERS with 200% or more than the average winter water use;

Note that over 87% of customers are in the Average tier, including individually non-metered (multi-unit) residential customers.

Current Sewer Service Charges

The following sewer service charges are the maximum approved charges for the following five years. Approved charges go into effect on July 1, 2022 and appear on the property tax bill in the following fall.

Non-Residential Rates Are Based on Three Factors

To accurately reflect cost of service, non-residential rates are comprised of three factors:

1. Square Footage of the non-residential space, which reflects its capacity to generate wastewater, called the Flow Factor.
2. Water Use in Winter as measured by the water bill, reflecting the amount of wastewater generated.
3. Strength of the Wastewater based on the type of business, which reflects the cost to treat the wastewater. Strength varies among non-residential uses. For example the strength for a restaurant would be much greater than that for an office because of the grease and food waste generated by a restaurant. The greater the strength of wastewater, the greater the cost to treat, and thus the greater the charge. There are different strength factors for a variety of business types.