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Billing, My Water

CHARLOTTE WATER 2024 RATE ADJUSTMENT

Taken by Cam Coley, employee City of Charlotte, Charlotte Water

Charlotte is a rapidly growing city, in an equally rapidly expanding region. Investments in vital resources and infrastructure will not only support that growth but allow everyone to have a quality of life that is only capable through access to a safe, clean and reliable water system. Each of the 1,200 Charlotte Water system employees work hard to support that vision. Charlotte Water does this by increasing capacity through improvement and enhancement projects and by working 24/7/365 to maintain, repair and replace foundational infrastructure across the region.

Why are Water Rates Increasing?

Charlotte Water is legally required to operate as a “cost-of-service provider.”  This means, as a utility, CLTWater must strictly use fees and rates to support, maintain and grow the water system. That requires us to operate as good water stewards and as a business operation that does not make a profit, but also can not legally operate at a loss.

Charlotte Water does not use property tax or sales tax to operate or fund capital improvements. The Charlotte Water system is supported entirely by water and sewer rates and fees paid by customers. Each dollar in rates has a specific purpose in how it goes to work in the water system. These rates allow Charlotte Water to:

  • Provide clean, safe and reliable drinking water
  • Maintain more than 9,000 miles of water and wastewater pipes
  • Rehabilitate, replace, and invest in aging infrastructure
  • Exceed regulatory requirements
  • Support regional growth
  • Safely transport and treat wastewater

To achieve this, each year, Charlotte Water systematically evaluates its existing infrastructure, upcoming capital needs (such as capacity), and other industry and economic variables. This helps determine if a rate adjustment is necessary. Potential adjustments are presented to the City Council, explaining how each dollar will be used and where it will go. If City Council approves, the new rates typically go into effect in July of that year.  “FY,” or fiscal year, is identified as July of the current year into June of the following year.

For FY2024, (July 2023- June 2024) Charlotte Water rates will increase an average of 4.25% , which equals approximately a $3.10 monthly increase for average Charlotte Water residential customer bills.

To learn more about the 2024 rates and fees, visit our webpage.

How are Rate Adjustments Decided/Calculated?

CLTWater uses a nationally-recognized rate consultant to evaluate and audit our rate model. This complex model uses many variables, such as regulatory, personnel, industry costs, etc., to create a ten-year projection.

Capital Improvement Plan

A large part of rates are used towards investing and funding Charlotte Water’s Capital Improvement Projects (CIP). Each year, CLTWater identifies and prioritizes several projects that are needed within a five-year period. Projects selected must meet certain requirements, such as fulfilling capacity needs, supporting future development, or improving the quality of life for the community.

The goal of the CIP is to:

  • Line up with CLTWater’s Mission and Vision to serve customers
  • Identify the right projects
  • Identify the funding needs
  • Maintain consistent annual funding levels
  • Ensure financial viability
  • Balance our goals against supporting municipal vision plans, economic development and regulatory requirements

For the fiscal year 2024-2028, CLTWater plans to invest $2.63 Billion back into the community’s utility. The investment can be broken down into key groups:

Capacity for Growth
$1.5B to expand and upsize pipes and plants to maintain service for a growing community

Rehab and Replacement
$645M to replace some of the oldest infrastructure

Regulatory Requirements
$279M to complete projects related to new state or federal regulations

Commitments to Public Projects
$115M to relocate pipes before NCDOT, City of Charlotte, or town-funded projects

Utility Support
$70M towards advancement in technology, security and updates to current facilities

Lawsuit Settlement Update

Charlotte Water previously shared with media and customers that a recent lawsuit settlement would impact the CIP program and possibly lead to a higher-than-normal rate adjustment in July. (You can learn more by reading the blog article here.)

Since January 2023, Charlotte Water restructured the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to instead absorb the lawsuit damages. This means the settlement costs will not be passed along to customers as previously proposed.

FY 24 Industrial Sewer Rates

CLTWater recently worked with a utility consulting firm to complete a rate study and better understand our rates and cost of treatment.  During the evaluation, we learned some of the industrial sewer rates had not been updated since 2011. This meant a rate recovery was needed for:

  • increased costs of treatment
  • treatment plant improvements
  • operational costs and program costs

Industrial Fees are different than regular customer sewer rates because industries usually have different/stronger compositions of certain chemicals.  Treatment plants are designed and regulated for domestic (residential) strength wastewater.

Each industry/business is unique in its usage and discharge. For most commercial and utility users, your bill is calculated based on how much water you use and your wastewater composition. In general, the more you use, the more you pay. For monitored industries, the higher the concentration of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS) or ammonia discharged, the more you will pay.

Non-monitored industries, e.g., breweries and restaurants, incur the high strength volume charge.

To mitigate the impact of the rate recovery, rates are proposed to increase in three phases:

  • July 1, 2023
  • January 1, 2024
  • Incremental increases annually expected to start July 1, 2024

To learn more about the different industrial and commercial rates, view these one-pagers below.

Charlotte Water Cares

CLTWater is always looking for ways to connect customers to resources and available financial aid programs. We work closely with several community partners, including Crisis Assistance and the Department of Social Services, to connect residents to resources. Learn more about our “Dream Team” by reading our blog article.

Financial assistance is available for families in need. Charlotte Water encourages customers to contact 3-1-1 or visit charlottewater.org to learn more about the many financial assistance programs available.

News, What's Going On?

Charlotte Water to Settle Lawsuit with Real Estate Developers and Home Builders. What does that mean for Customers? 

Recently, Charlotte City Council approved a legal settlement between Charlotte Water and a law firm representing local real estate developers and builders. The lawsuit is part of an overall class action lawsuit against more than two dozen cities in North Carolina, including Charlotte, over the legality of water utilities to charge system development fees. The developers and builders claimed that utilities’ system development fees should be stopped and paid back.

System development fees are a long-standing industry standard, state statute (North Carolina General Statute 162A Article 8), and important part of a water utility’s capacity-building program.

 Charlotte Water, like other utilities in the state, charge system development fees to developers and other home builders to partially recover upfront costs associated with capacity investments. These fees – not charged to the average Charlotte Water customers – help offset the financial investment required to build the necessary water and sewer system expansions for new developments. Fees range from $3,500 to over a million and depend on the size of the meter being requested and are typically passed along to developers’ clients and products.

“Without system development fees all customers would bear the cost of the additional capacity needed when new developments add on to the water and sewer systems.”

The initial lawsuit was filed by the developers in November 2018. A second lawsuit was filed by the developers in April 2021 similar to the first but covering a different timeframe. Since the purpose of Charlotte Water’s system development fees and the extensiveness of our CIP program are fundamentally different than the other cities, Charlotte Water felt confident in the case. However, after four years of litigation, Charlotte Water lost the first suit and made the decision to settle the second to minimize the financial impact to customers.

“Though the City continues to dispute the allegations, a settlement was recommended to avoid further financial risk to all existing customers.”

The settlement, which includes two installments for a total of $106 million dollars, will be spread over two years. The first installment of $90 million, has already been paid for using mainly Charlotte Water reserves moved to take the brunt of the financial impact. The second settlement, $16 million, will be paid through a multi-prong solution of reduced cash flow to current capital investment projects, short-term delays to some projects, reserves, and a proposed additional $0.72/household annually rate increase, taking effect July 1, 2023.

 Legal staff will bring forward during the January 23 Council meeting recommended changes to Chapter 23 of City Code to clarify and further define Charlotte Water revenues and use of funds.

UPDATE: City Council approved the changes during the January 23 Business Meeting.

Billing, My Water

Additional Pre-Covid Billing Operations to Resume in January 2023

With the new year, there are a few notable changes coming to Charlotte Water (CLTWater). CLTWater has slowly been returning to pre-Covid billing operations, and some of these processes have already been implemented. Beginning January 2023, customers can expect disconnection and reconnection fees ($17 each) to resume.  Also in January, late fees, which are 1.5% of past-due charges, will begin and will appear on February bills.

Charlotte Water continues to look for ways to help customers who need help with their water bills get connected to resources. At the beginning of the pandemic, CLTWater policies were temporarily changed or suspended.  As financial aid programs, CARES Act funding and City grants became available, CLTWater worked closely with community partners like Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services (DSS), Housing and Neighborhood Services, and local non-profits community groups such as DreamKey Partners, Crisis Assistance Ministries and Commonwealth Charlotte, to connect thousands of customers with financial aid assistance.

One such financial assistance program was the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP). This federal program was designed specifically for customers who were in danger of having their water service disconnected due to outstanding balances. To better help residents, CLTWater and DSS met regularly and worked intensely to streamline the process of receiving federal funding and distributing the aid directly to customer accounts who qualified. CLTWater was the only utility in the state to auto-match customers with LIHWAP financial assistance.

By implementing this process, and because of the successful partnership with DSS, thousands of Charlotte-Mecklenburg area residents received financial assistance. In just the first round of funding, CLTWater and DSS allocated more than $1.3 million to CLTWater customers, approximately 19% of all LIHWAP funds distributed statewide. The number of outstanding or delinquent CLTWater accounts at risk of disconnection dropped by the thousands, and more federal funding is expected.

Today, CLTWater and DSS representatives continue to meet weekly to keep the process running smoothing, discussing everything from how people are learning about different aid programs, how many accounts are in need of aid, and the best communication strategies to keep the public informed. By working with DSS, CLTWater customers that are in need of water bill assistance can also learn about other utility assistance and housing assistance programs offered by DSS, such as Low Income Energy Assistance Program.

As CLTWater slowly moves back to normal operations, assistance is still available for customers in need of financial help during this time.  Visit CharlotteWater.org, or call 311, and get connected to a variety of resources.