Proposed Water Rate Changes

 Tuesday, April 22, the Provo City Council met to discuss proposed changes to the city’s water billing system. These changes aim to address aging infrastructure and comply with new state conservation requirements. The proposal includes a tiered rate system that would reward lower water use while generating funds for pipe replacement and long-term maintenance. This page outlines the current proposal, why it matters, and how you can get involved.

Background

An aging infrastructure requires that more funds be spent on replacing water mains, some of which are 100 years old. The City hired experts to study the situation and recommend solutions. The experts recommended a 16% increase of the overall water infrastructure budget, which would be paid by increasing users’ water bills. Mayor Kaufusi insisted that the figure be reduced to 5%. The experts also recommended implementing a three-tiered system that would reward conservative water users by keeping their rates similar to rates now. 

During Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Kaufusi spoke to the Council about a new way forward that wouldn’t require raising rates. The Council voted 4 to 3 to continue the matter and consider it after gathering more information, including details of an agricultural exemption. Many residents have expressed passionate and varied opinions on the issue, and the details of the proposed plan can seem complicated at first glance. We at Conserve Utah Valley urge all Provo citizens and others interested in water issues to get information from many trustworthy sources, especially from your Council members. Then let the Council and the Mayor know your opinion. The following Q and A is from the perspective of CUV.

Why is CUV interested in what method the city uses to determine water rates? 

CUV’s mission is to conserve land and water in Utah Valley forever. Utah HB 274 (2025) requires cities to consider conservation when designing a water billing system and to use a tiered system which rewards those who conserve water. All over the state, towns and cities are considering how to adapt to the new law, and the result will be better water conservation across the state and more water flowing into the Great Salt Lake. The Mayor’s Office and the City Council are ahead of the curve, because for two years they have engaged in a study of how to pay for increased funding for infrastructure. They are prepared to also consider how to meet the requirements of HB 274. 

Provo’s water comes from springs and wells, so the water itself is essentially free. Why does Provo City charge for municipal water?

Provo water costs little when compared to many Utah communities because the City draws from  spring and well water, which is relatively clean and doesn’t require extensive treatment. The City gets some water from the Provo River that must be processed more than water from these other sources. The main cost is maintaining and replacing infrastructure, including water mains and other delivery pipes. Fifty-four percent of  Provo’s mains are 35 years old or older, some more than 100 years.  A regular schedule of replacement is the least expensive and most convenient way of replacing rusting mains. An unexpected break interrupts water service, including service to hospitals, schools, and businesses. Leaky or broken pipes waste water. We at CUV care about conserving water, both through a plan for regular maintenance and a plan for rewarding those who conserve water. How the city pays for infrastructure replacement is not within the purview of CUV’s mission, except that HB 274 requires a tiered system, which conserves water. The proposal currently before the Council will achieve both systematic replacement of old water mains and compliance with HB 274. It will be phased in over time, so its effects won’t be felt immediately.

In plain English, how does a tiered system work?

A tiered system encourages water conservation. Instead of charging everyone the same amount per gallon, a tiered system charges less per gallon to those who use less water and more per gallon to those who use more water. This increase happens in stages. If water usage rises above a predetermined ceiling, only the amount over the ceiling is charged at the higher rate. This generally only happens during summer months, when people are watering lawns and gardens. An equitable fee schedule charges lower fees to those who burden the infrastructure less, and more to those who burden the system more. Determining how much a user burdens the system depends on many factors. Analysis could include water volume, pipe size, water pressure due to intensity of volume delivery, and distance over which the water is delivered to individual households. 

The proposed system the Council is considering uses a simple analysis based on volume and meter size. Different meter sizes correlate with different average usage patterns—for example, customers with ¾” meters tend to use significantly less water than those with 6″ meters. So, grouping users by meter size helps the city compare usage against typical expectations for that group. The proposed system has three tiers. In theory, Tier 1 is how much water an average homeowner would use for household purposes—drinking, cooking, bathing, etc.—in a month. Tier 2 is enough for a yard and garden, especially if the yard uses drip lines and grass that thrives on less water. Tier 3 is for users who want extra water, possibly for a large lawn or an orchard. Each tier has a ceiling. If water usage rises above that ceiling, only the amount over the ceiling is charged at the higher rate. This generally only happens during summer months, when people are watering lawns and gardens.

We have a lot of new high-density developments in Provo. Isn’t that the cause of the worry over water infrastructure?

Not as much as one might think. An apartment building with many residents may use more water than a single-family dwelling with a yard, but on average, the water users in an apartment building use much less water per family than in a single-family home.These developments have large inlet pipes, so they have higher ceilings and provide water to many families. Moreover, the distance water travels through pipes per household is much smaller, at lower pressure and volume per household, and therefore less expensive to the city. New developments of sprawl are always the most expensive to build and maintain over the long term. In most cases, water mains and pipes installed for new construction are of higher quality, so they won’t need to be replaced for half a century or longer. 

 

Provo’s identity is connected to our gardens, orchards, and shade trees. Why do we have to give that up? 

We don’t have to give up on any of these, but as a community we can afford to use some water conserving methods such as using drip lines, watering lawns at night, lanting lawns with drought resistant grass, reducing the expanses of little-used grassy areas, and other strategies.

Provo receives 20 inches of rain a year, so without supplementary water we could grow many beautiful native flowers, juniper trees, native oak brush trees, serviceberry, native shrubs like sagebrush and rabbitbrush, as well as native grasses, and similar plants. All can add to the beauty, function, and diversity of our identity on our home owner and public landscapes.

Because we can use streams from the canyon, we are able to have well-planned gardens, deciduous shade trees, and personal orchards. Using water more efficiently is provident and forward looking. As stewards of our properties we can adapt and beautify our surroundings in water-wise ways.

Is the proposed system perfect?

No. City employees work hard to install the correct pipe size for the predicted needs of the user. This is determined by lot size and purpose of the property. But this doesn’t always perfectly align with eventual use. For example, a ⅓ acre lot might have a ¾ inch inlet pipe and another similarly-sized lot might have a 1-inch pipe, but even if they use the same amount of water in summer months, the home-owner with the smaller pipe will meet the tier ceiling earlier and be charged more. The proposed system doesn’t raise user fees in equal percentages, so some users will see little or no change to their bills and those who have traditionally used higher volumes of water could see their rates jump significantly, at least 20%. The city is developing an exemption for agricultural production for those with orchards or large gardens that supply food to themselves and others, but this exemption is not in place yet. We have confidence that the Mayor and her staff and the City officials will find a way to modify that plan in a manner that most people can agree with. That’s why it’s so important that you let your Council members know what you want. 

 

Why is water conservation important?

As one of the driest states in the country, Utah continually deals with drought conditions or needs to prepare for them (drought.utah.gov). Conserving water is about ensuring that Utahns continue to enjoy clean and sufficient water for the long term. Provo is fortunate to have abundant, good water, but many other watersheds in Utah run out of water each year (cite and link). For Provo to continue to enjoy its water resources for years to come, careful planning and conservation is needed.

Additionally, the Provo River and Utah Lake are an important watershed for the Great Salt Lake, which is drying up. The health impacts as well as the environmental effects of the Great Salt Lake drying up would decrease the quality of life for everyone living on the Wasatch Front. Among the potential effects is the danger of an exposed lakebed, which has absorbed decades of industrial waste, pesticides, and heavy metals. The dried lakebed would enter the air we breathe as dust particles and expose our bodies to these toxic substances. For more information click here https://growtheflowutah.org/ and here https://www.saveourgreatsaltlake.org/  

Once you’ve learned about the issue, let your representatives know what you think! There are two ways to make your voice heard.

  1. Attend the next City Council meeting at which this issue will be addressed. We are not yet certain whether this particular issue will be discussed at that meeting, but once the agenda is published we will send an update via social media and our newsletter. The next City Council meeting will be held on May 6th at 5:30pm at Provo City Hall. (Click here for information on attending and making comments virtually). 
  2. Send an email to your Provo City Council Members and Mayor Kaufusi. Their contact information is below. Feel free to use the following form letter to help you structure your email, if you find it helpful. Adapt it to your own view as needed.

 

Your Title Goes Here

Hello [insert name of representative],

I am writing to express my support for the adoption of a three-tiered water rate system to raise funds for aging water infrastructure and promote water conservation. I urge you to vote in support of this water rate system [with the following adjustments].

The proposed system seems like a fair and efficient way to gather the funds to address the required maintenance of Provo’s water infrastructure. [Add your own thoughts on why you think the proposed system is equitable or whether you think the plan needs adjustment.]

In addition to infrastructure updates, I am concerned about water conservation. Continual drought conditions in Utah as well as the need to allocate increased water flow to the Great Salt Lake show us that water conservation practices are an important investment in the long-term environmental and physical health of both Provo residents and Utahns. Recently passed state law HB 274 requires cities in Utah to implement a tiered water fee system that takes water conservation into consideration. This proposed system would comply with state law. Provo City has the opportunity to be one of the first to set an example of effective water conservation policy to other cities across the state as each municipality considers how to comply with the new state law.

Thank you for your time and attention.

[your name]