The new water resource fee has drawn most of the attention, but the rate plan the Town Council takes up again on Wednesday, Oct. 21, also reshapes what Queen Creek customers pay for the water itself, shifting more of the cost onto landscape irrigation meters and construction water.
The council meets at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Chambers, 20727 E. Civic Parkway. The water and wastewater item is listed for discussion and direction only, with no vote and no public comment taken on it. A public hearing and final action on the full package of rates and fees is set for Nov. 18.
Tiers flip toward conservation
Under the slides prepared for the meeting, single-family homes keep a three-tier structure, but the prices move in opposite directions at each end. The first 10,000 gallons a month would drop from $2.04 to $1.50 per 1,000 gallons. The middle tier, up to 20,000 gallons, would go from $2.73 to $2.50.
Use beyond that would rise from $3.40 to $4.00 per 1,000 gallons. The fixed charge for a standard three-quarter-inch meter stays at $21.08, and the town would drop the 1,000-gallon minimum now built into that charge.
Staff list the tier changes as a way to encourage conservation. For a single-family home on combined water and sewer using 10,000 gallons, the water portion of the bill would fall from $39.44 to $36.08.
Where the increases land
That home would also pay the new water resource fee, shown at $18.42 a month after a 40% credit for water returned through the sewer system. The sewer charge stays at $43.99, since staff propose no change to single-family wastewater rates. Altogether the slides put that bill at $98.49, up from $83.43, an increase of $15.06 or 18%.
Other customers see larger swings. A one-inch landscape meter using 25,000 gallons would go from $98.31 to $211.88 a month, and construction water would nearly double, from $4.60 to $9.00 per 1,000 gallons.
