In response to numerous complaints about high water bills, the City Council reverted to a fixed rate instead of a tiered one at its meeting July 23.
“We took a good stab at it. I think this is a step in the right direction, but the reality is, it’s just not working as presented or intended,” City Manager Drew Sanders said at the meeting. “We will do away with the tiered structure for now.”
For single-family homes, the base rate of $31.80 – which includes the first 1,000 gallons of water used – remains. From there, each additional 1,000 gallons will cost $3.73.
“Whether you use 2,000 or 20,000 (gallons), you’re paying $3.73 per thousand. The tiered system we were trying to do was up to a certain point, you pay $3.73, but anything over that, you’re going to pay more because that’s seen as above average,” Medina said.
These new rates will be reflected in bills for July 1 watering and on, Sanders said.
Multifamily homes and commercial buildings pay a different rate that’s raised once they use over 36,000 gallons of water. These rates were not changed at the meeting.
In December, the council agreed to adopt a more aggressive, tiered rate system effective Jan. 1 this year. The move was in response to a water study by SEH, Inc. and what it recommended.
“The rates that we adopted are actually higher than what was proposed to us, so that is definitely our mistake that we need to own,” said Mayor Rachel Medina at the meeting.
“We got proposed two different options and … we added yet another tier and made our tiers … more expensive than what was proposed to us,” she said.
The goal was to fund maintenance projects and target the city’s aging water infrastructure, something previous councils and staff didn’t prioritize, Medina said.
Another goal was to figure out a threshold for what extreme water use looked like, and disincentivize that kind of consumption, she said.
Sanders pointed out how the tiered rates didn’t work as promised in many cases. Some water bills were 70% to 100% higher this May than they were in May 2023.
“The problem became a little more acute in June ’24 when the weather became even warmer,” Sanders said.
Several community members spoke out at the previous meeting on July 9 about the costly rates. Something had to change.
They said they can’t afford the new rates, and that they were being penalized for keeping their lawns green.
“We needed to fall back on our normal system so we have time to reevaluate and have a better rate system next year,” Medina said.
That system may or may not be tiered and will be decided early December.
Moving forward, the council will look through data and discuss how much money they need to replace aged lines and fund operations and maintenance at the treatment plant.
“We need to make sure we raise enough money for that, but we also need to balance that with what our community can afford. We don’t want to bankrupt them with charging too much,” Medina said.
Each year, the council raises its water rates to support its enterprise fund, which pays for maintenance projects and such things in the following year.
Conservation is a secondary bonus in all this, Medina said.
Daily conservation, however, can be crucial.
“Our water treatment plant can only process so much water in one day,” said Medina. “We need to be more water efficient in terms of conservation.”
If the city uses the maximum amount of treated water it can each day, it puts enormous strain on the treatment plant and thus jeopardizes it, Medina said.
As it stands, the plant can treat 10 million gallons of water a day, though it’s put in jeopardy at 8 million, said Randy Hunt, the water plant superintendent.
During summer, it treats 3.5 million to 4 million gallons, so the plant is not treating water at its full capacity, Hunt said.
Still, some council members thought the tiered rates were reasonable, since higher water users put a greater strain on the system.
Plus, before the latest study by SEH, Inc., the last one was done in 1986.
“I think Cortez’s water rates have not been based on real data and so this is going to be a change,” said Mayor Pro Tem Lydia DeHaven at the meeting. “We’re going to have to work with the community and get used to what our real data says about the cost of water.”
“We didn’t intend for people’s bills to double, but I do support in the future that we continue looking at a tiered system based on some different data,” DeHaven said.
Councilmember Matthew Keefauver pointed out that in future discussions, they’ll have to consider the waterlines that need replacing and plan to do that work.
“And we do need to recognize where we live,” said Keefauver. “There are ways for us to maintain green lawns that are maybe not quite as water intensive.”
If you water your lawn early in the morning – between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. – or late in the evening – between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. – less water is evaporated in the heat of the day, according to a report by the Public Works Department.
The report further recommends to wet “the soil four to six inches deep with several days between watering.” Watering twice a week allows the grass to develop deep, drought-resistant roots.
Mowing less and leaving clippings on the lawn also lends itself to healthier grass that holds water and moisture better, so try and aim for blades around 3 inches tall, the report said.
Additionally, in lieu of Kentucky bluegrass, folks can have a green lawn – and avoid xeriscaping – if they opt for less thirsty grasses like fescues, blue gramma, wheat grass and buffalo grass, the report said.
“Green grass is not supposed to grow in the desert,” one citizen said at the meeting.
Another person pointed out that a positive from all this is that it’s made people aware of how much water they’re using.
“It’s a resource we can’t waste,” they said.
Medina agreed with that sentiment.
“I hope that citizens with high water bills take this opportunity to evaluate and make sure they don’t have leaks,” she said. “(It’s) an opportunity for them to evaluate their own water use and make sure they’re being efficient.”
The rates ultimately were revised because of the concerns community members raised a few weeks ago, which prompted the council to reevaluate its tiered rate structure.
And so, while the new fee structure is developed over the next few months, “the public will have opportunities to be part of the discussion and will provide input and learn and be educated,” Medina said.
Sanders said that he’s hopeful the public will get involved, because “we need to hear from them.”
“What happens is, people come when it’s something they figure effects them, and it’s kind of a single-issue thing and then they quit paying attention,” said Sanders. “This is not something that anybody should stop paying attention to. We want you to pay attention to it, and we need your input.”
