‘Water’ You Paying For: Demystifying Water Rates

Everyone who lives in a house or apartment has a water bill. Peeling back the curtain on water rates and the reasons behind them can be difficult, so let us help. 

Written by: Madeline Nowak, Sustainability Editor

Photos by: Grace Metcalf and Caleb Upson

Rates

There are three water providers that service Grand Junction: City of Grand Junction Water, Clifton Water and Ute Water. All three Grand Junction water providers structure their rates in tiers. The base rate covers operating costs and the first 2,000 or 3,000 gallons that customers use. Above the gallons included in the base rate, each provider charges per 1,000 gallons, and costs increase at certain benchmarks.

City of Grand Junction Water		Ute Water		Clifton Water
Gallons	Cost	Gallons	Cost	Gallons	Cost
Base Rate	$17.98	Base Rate	$26.00	Base Rate	$32.50
2,001-10,000	$4.01	3,001-9,000	$4.25	3,001-10,000	$3.30
10,001-20,000	$4.75	9,001-15,000	$4.85	10,001-18,000	$4.40
>20,000	$5.84	15,001-21,000	$5.70	18,001-25,000	$6.70
		21,001-30,000	$6.55	>25,000	$13.34
		>31,000	$11.75

Both Ute and Clifton raised their base rate in 2023 for the first time in around seven years, and raised it again going into 2024. 

“Typically what you see is utility providers increasing their rates every year, as costs are likely rising,” Andrea Lopez, External Affairs Manager for Ute Water, said, “Our board analyzed it every year and didn’t feel like [the rise in operational costs] was sufficient enough.” 

The City of Grand Junction, on the other hand, has been raising rates steadily since 2016.

“What we try to do is keep our rate structure up to par as to what we need every year so we don’t have to do those bigger rate increases,” Randi Kim, Utilities Director for the City of Grand Junction, said, “We’d rather do small incremental rate increases every year.”

The base rate for each of the three providers is different, with the city having the lowest base rate and Clifton Water having the highest base rate. Each of the rates is designed to cover the operational costs of the provider, and looking closer at the treatment plants and revenue structures of each provider, the differences begin to make sense.

The city uses a direct filtration plant, which means that their operating costs are lower, allowing them to offer the lowest rates of the three. Ute Water uses a similar filtration system, while Clifton Water’s treatment plant stands out as a membrane treatment plant and the most energy intensive of the three plants.

Clifton Water is the only one of the three providers that draws their water from the Colorado River. Both the city and Ute have supplemental water pumps in the river, but those are rarely turned on, in fact 2021 was the first time in at least 14 years that Ute Water had to use their pump. The higher turbidity of the river water compared to the reservoir water that the other two use requires a more advanced and therefore more energy and cost intensive treatment plant. The higher cost to treat the water results in higher rates. 

The City of Grand Junction is planning to add the Gunnison River to their supply in the future in order to meet demand, which would likely result in a price increase to pay for the more advanced filtration that would be required to treat the river water. However, this project is not likely to be completed soon, as the project is still in the early stages. Currently a feasibility study is being conducted to assess whether two gravel pits near the river could be converted into reservoirs.

Conservation

2020 and 2021 were both drought years, with the summer of 2021 being particularly hard on water providers. As previously mentioned, Ute Water had to use their river pump for the first time in a long time, and the reservoirs on the Mesa had high evaporation rates.

“It’s normal for maybe 10 [percent of water to evaporate] if it’s a brutal, brutal summer,” Mark Ritterbush, the City of Grand Junction Water Services Manager, said, “but we saw pretty much 15% across the board.” 

Supply and demand both factor into the need to conserve water, as water scarcity becomes a problem, demand for water is only expected to rise. 

“By 2045… our customer base is expected to double,” Lopez said. Ute Water is the largest of the water providers, area wise, and most of the expansion that is happening is occurring within their district. One of their main concerns that drives their water conservation efforts is the fact that the population in their district could go from around 90,000 customers to 180,000 within 11 years. 

The city, whose district is almost completely surrounded by Ute’s and covers one of the fullest sections of Grand Junction is less worried about building out and more worried about building up.

“Increased density has increased the number of customers on our system and increased demand,” Kim said. She mentioned the new apartment complexes springing up in Grand Junction, including the Railyard at Rimrock.

The benefit to the tiered structure that the water providers use is that it encourages water conservation by hitting consumers where it hurts: the wallet. All three water providers encourage water conservation that way, with prices per 1,000 gallons increasing quickly when water use gets too high.

There are other ways to help with water conservation. Kim mentioned a number of rebate programs that the city has to encourage customers to update old appliances that use more water to newer versions that are more efficient in terms of water. Old toilets, dishwashers and clothes washers are common culprits for inefficient water use, which can easily drive up utility bills.

Ute Water also provides irrigation water for outdoors use, in addition to the treated water for indoors. Irrigation water can cause issues with clogged sprinklers and pipes, but the lack of treatment means that the water is more cost efficient. Not using drinking water on lawns helps with the amount of drinkable water available. 

Another common reason for high water bills is swamp coolers. There is no perfect solution to air conditioning in hot months. Swamp coolers use huge amounts of water and can make water bills sky high, but the alternative uses huge amounts of energy, which drives up the electric bill. Consumers have to decide for themselves which is the lesser of two evils, but swamp coolers are one of the biggest causes for high water bills, right up there with leaking toilets.

Usage

The good news is that these conservation efforts are working. 

“Over the years we see the trend that per capita consumption is coming down,” Ritterbush said about the city. 

Ute Water saw a similar decrease.

“We’ve actually seen a decline in our per capita per day per customer,” Lopez said.

Population might be increasing, but if each individual decreases their personal water use, the strain on demand can be offset somewhat. It’s not a complete solution, as more people will always need more water, but it helps. 

In the end, water is a resource like any other. Low supply and high demand makes for high rates, high supply and low demand make for low rates. 

“We look at water conservation not only as a way to preserve our water supply,” Kim said, “but to save money.”