With the coronavirus forcing many people to remain at home for the foreseeable future, Raleigh wants to lower the water bills for families who are using more water than normal.
“I expect that many customers could double their use, depending on how many are in the household and whether the adults are teleworking from home,” said Robert Massengill, director of Raleigh’s Public Utilities, now called Raleigh Water.
That increased water use will push many families into the highest and most expensive water bill tier, he said.
The Raleigh City Council voted Tuesday to increase the cap for entering the highest tier starting in April and continuing until after the Wake County’s state of emergency order is lifted.
Water bills are measured in CCFs or 100 cubic feet of water. One CCF is 748 gallons of water. Residential customers normally moved into the third tier after using 11 or more CCFs. The Council voted to lift the cap to 21 or more CCFs to reach the third tier.
Raleigh Water’s bills begin with a standard base charge of $6.26. Tier 1 is 4 CCFs at $2.59 for each CCF, or $10.36. Tier 2 is for 6 CCFs at $4.32 each, or $25.92. Tier 3 is for 11 or more CCFs at $5.75 each. Raleigh Water also charges each customer for watershed protection at $0.1122 for each CCF and $1.50 each month for the Water Infrastructure Replacement Charge. A household using 23 CCFs in a month would have a bill of $121.37.
It is unclear how many families this will help — that data comes on a monthly basis — but real-time data shows that water production has remained the same even though schools, universities, local governments and large businesses are mostly empty.
The city thinks that the commercial water usage has shifted to families in their homes.
“With so many people being required to stay home, it appears that the residential customer usage has increased enough to offset the non-residential use losses,” Massengill said. “This is expected to push some of our residential customers into tier three.”
The financial impacts of this change are still uncertain, Massengill said, but he doesn’t expect a significant impact of shifting the tiers.
Raleigh Water decided last month not to disconnect service for non-payment, to waive late fees and to reconnect accounts that had been disconnected.
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One Response
Wish Raleigh would lower the water rate they are charging on the Jones Dairy Farm subdivision. They have been charging us double the rate they charge for Wake Forest City customers ( of which we live right across the street from). The reason behind it is stated as because they can. It is highway robbery. Now that we are out of work, it will be even harder.