TMWA is making adjustments to how water rates are structured to ensure fairness for all customers. As a commonly used analysis across the water industry, the purpose of the COS study is to ensure customers are proportionally charged for their cost to have water delivered.

The recommended adjustments from the COS study were presented to TMWA’s Standing Advisory Committee in August and Board of Directors in September. Importantly, these adjustments do not increase TMWA’s customer revenue, instead this results in an equitable way to capture fixed and variable costs and then adjust across customer categories accordingly.

Fixed costs include things like pipes, pumps, treatment plants and reservoir operations. Variable costs include electric power, water treatment chemicals, etc. The COS study found while 43% of TMWA’s costs are fixed, only 33% of current revenue is collected through fixed monthly charges.

To align charges with cost for service, TMWA will increase fixed rates based on customer meter size. For most of TMWA’s customers, this adjustment will result in slightly reduced per-gallon water charges.

Most customers will see little to no change in their bills, while those with high seasonal use may notice a change during summer months. This will ensure no group of customers is subsidizing another.

To answer any questions, two public Zoom workshops are scheduled for Thursday, December 4th at 10:30 a.m. and Tuesday, December 9th at 6:00 p.m. Before then, customers are encouraged to learn more, view examples and provide questions in advance at tmwa.com/COS. This is also where you can find the Zoom links to the upcoming workshops