News
ILRW Announces Change In The Cost of Water
December 2010
Drinking water is essential for life and Iowa Lakes Regional Water offers some of the best quality tap water in the United States. It is our responsibility to ensure that the quality of water delivered at every home is safe to drink and there is adequate quantity every day of the year.
Annually, the Board of Directors reviews the operations and maintenance costs to deliver water including such costs as electricity, regulatory and laboratory fees, costs in water purchased from suppliers, and fuel. The cost increases we have experienced post Hurricane Katrina have adversely impacted the total operational cost of the system. Fuel prices have risen up to $4.00 per gallon since then and the economy downturn last fall have contributed to increases that have exceeded normal inflation expectations. Therefore, an adjustment is required to pay for all these costs associated with operating a safe, reliable water system.
Not only does the rate schedule have to provide adequate revenues to meet operations and maintenance costs, but the rates have to meet the District’s financial requirements to fund the reserve policies established by the Board of Directors for system replacement costs.
Maintenance is a very important part of operating a public water supply system and at this time all components are in excellent operating condition, but in the future the Board of Directors will need funds to replace wells, perform treatment plant improvements, and other tasks such as repainting water towers. Funding the reserve policies will ensure the financial and operational integrity of the system.
As mentioned before, the third component of the water rates is payment of debt service. In the early 1980’s, the water district began growing from a single county rural water system to a multi-county regional utility district. Thus, Iowa Lakes Regional Water established an entrepreneurial vision supported by the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development that engaged an aggressive expansion schedule to provide more homes and farms a safe, dependable source of water at the most reasonable cost. Each time a project is started, Iowa Lakes Regional Water must obtain funding to build the project. The Board of Directors must borrow the money to construct the system because the water district does not have taxing authority. Thus, the water rates are set up to pay back the money borrowed to build the project, known as debt service.
For each separate expansion project, ILRW monitors a cost effective balance when adding users along existing distribution lines and extending new distribution lines. The basic governing project goal is that the current add-on project increases the user base as quickly as practical without increasing the current debt service of the existing users.
Not only are the expenditures evaluated, but the Board of Directors also evaluates the rate schedule to ensure the fair allocation of costs to all the District’s customer classes including residential users both year round and seasonal, agricultural users, and bulk users. For this reason, in setting the monthly rates, the Board requires all customers pay a monthly minimum. Otherwise, seasonal users would be paying less each month for the debt service and year-round users would have to pay on the debt service on behalf of the seasonal users.
Cost of Water
This year when the Board of Directors reviewed the operation and maintenance costs (i.e. electricity to deliver water, chemicals, laboratory fees, costs in water purchased from suppliers, and system replacement costs), an adjustment was required to meet those needs and pay for all costs associated with operating a safe, reliable system.
The change in the cost of water will be effective January 1, 2011, which includes water usage in December. The change in the cost of water includes an 8% adjustment, or $3.50 increase, resulting in a monthly minimum charge of $47.26 (plus tax) for either no water used or up to and including the first 2,000 gallons and an 8% adjustment per 1,000 gallons. Stated another way, average residential usage of 4,000 gallons will adjust from $63.76 to $68.86.
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Treatment Plant Maintenance Scheduled for January
December 2010
Maintenance is a very important part of operating a public water supply and a driving force for service reliability. At Iowa Lakes Regional Water (ILRW), it has always been a top priority and as a result, all components of the treatment plant are in excellent operating condition.
As part of our successful maintenance program, ILRW has scheduled routine maintenance on our water softening equipment at the treatment plant, which is scheduled for January. During this time, ILRW does not expect any service interruptions, but you may notice the water will not be as soft during this maintenance period. ILRW would like to thank you for your cooperation during this time and members with any questions are encouraged to contact Elizabeth Johansen at 712-262-8847.
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New Process for ILRW Payment Return Envelopes
December 2010
At the request of several
members, ILRW is making some changes to the return
envelope insertion process for monthly billing.
Currently, all members receive their monthly bills and a return envelope for their payment. Customers that utilize the
option to have their payment withdrawn from their bank
account each month or have a credit on their account are still receiving a return envelope. However, that will soon change!
ILRW is expecting the new process to be in place by January 1, 2011. After January 1, 2011, if not before, customers that have their payments automatically withdrawn from their bank account or have a zero or credit balance, will not receive a
return envelope with their
statement. The new process will also allow for customers with multiple accounts to receive all of the statements in one envelope.
ILRW is working towards going “green” and cutting down on
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