Setting Competitive Water Reuse Rates

Green, David D.; Riley, Stephen H.; ,

Setting Competitive Water Reuse Rates

by David D. Green, CH2M HILL, Deerfield Beach, United States,
Stephen H. Riley, CH2M HILL, Deerfield Beach, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Water Policy and Management: Solving the Problems

Abstract:

Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department (WUD) is preparing to provide reclaimed water service to several large irrigators near the County's Southern Region Wastewater Treatment Plant (SRWWTP). WUD needed to develop a means of fairly and equitably recovering program costs from beneficiaries. Because normal cost-of-service analysis would have resulted in rates too high to provide an incentive for prospective customers, an alternative approach was required. It was determined that the reclaimed water program would benefit not only reclaimed water customers, but also the wastewater system and current and future potable water system users. Therefore, a method to estimate the benefits to each group was developed and fees were calculated to distribute program costs among them. WUD intends to use these calculations as a basis for negotiating user agreements. This paper describes how benefits were determined, and how these allocations could be used to develop a proposed pricing program for reclaimed water service in Palm Beach County.

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