Economic Synthesis of Water Rates in Delaware and Surrounding River Basins
Date
2000-08-21
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Abstract
The University of Delaware, Institute for Public Administration, Water Resources Agency (WRA) conducted an inventory of water rates for public- and investor-owned water utilities within Delaware and the surrounding states of Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The purpose of this inventory is to summarize and compare residential and wholesale water rates for Delaware and the surrounding mid-Atlantic region. The authors intend this report to be useful to water providers, Federal, State, and local water agencies and the public. This report is an update of the original water rate inventory conducted in September 1996.
The WRA obtained water rate data from the water utilities in each of the four states according to the following procedure. Over thirty utilities were contacted by telephone and by fax and were requested to forward published water rate data. Responses were received from 26 water purveyors. Once received by the WRA, the water data were summarized in a computer database using Excel 97. Appendix A contains the database which includes the name of the water utility, contact person, address, and residential and wholesale water rate information. Appendix B includes the water rate tariffs submitted by the water providers.
Once the water rate data were summarized in the database, the WRA computed typical rates based on residential and wholesale use. Residential water rates were computed assuming a quarterly residential use of 15,000 gallons per customer. Wholesale rates were obtained from published information and contracts between interconnected water supply utilities.
Quarterly residential rates were computed based on four factors: the service charge, fire protection fee, quarterly consumption rates, and quarterly use fees.