To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E. Director of Castle Rock Water
Anne Glassman, Business Solutions Manager
Title
Update: Non-Residential Irrigation Water Budgets
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide Castle Rock Town Council with an update on the non-residential irrigation project results after the completion of the 2019 irrigation season. In December of 2018, Castle Rock Water went through Commission and Council to make changes to the Water Budget Rate Structure for non-residential customers. The primary changes were to require budgets to be calculated relative to not just irrigated areas but also plant type (See Attachment A) for all non-residential landscapes installed after 2003. Castle Rock water also planned to verify and update actual irrigated areas for all non-residential customers. The primary goal of this change was to get customers to only use the water they need for their specific landscapes. This is a significant water conservation opportunity as the data shows most of these customers are using a lot more water than they need to use.
History of Past Town Council, Boards & Commissions, or Other Discussions
This item was presented to the CR Water Commission on 12/11/19.
By general consensus CR Water Commission agreed that Castle Rock Water should do another year of education before financial consequences occur for customers who do not meet the revised water budgets.
Discussion
Castle Rock Water staff presented the non-residential irrigation project to Town Council in 2018.The project started in late 2018 with the completion of a new flyover of the 890 active nonresidential irrigation accounts. Budgets were updated both with actual irrigated areas and plant types for those irrigated areas. In other words instead of assuming all irrigated areas were Kentucky Blues Grass, as had previously been done, the actual plant types were identified. Throughout 2019 staff contacted all 890 customers with updated graphs showing actual usage compared to current and adjusted budgets based on updated irrigated areas from the flyover and updated plant materials such as turf, shrubs and native grass.
The outreach at this point has consisted of one initial outreach to introduce the project initiatives and another outreach after April-June consumption results. The final outreach for the season will include usage along with financial implications for those customers who would go over the adjusted budgets if use continues the same as in the 2019 season.
When determining how customers performed, staff looked at how many customers would go over the projected adjusted budgets with the actual 2019 usage as well as what financial implications this would have on each customer if the usage patterns remained the same after the budgets were officially updated based on the corrected irrigated areas and the new plant type criteria. When looking at usage out of the 890 total accounts, 645 of those accounts went over the projected budgets at least one month during the 7-month period as shown in the table below
|
Number of Accounts with Usage Over Adjusted Budget |
|
Customer Class |
Total Accounts Over Adjusted Budget - At least one month |
No Months Over Adjusted Budget |
1 Month Over Adjusted Budget |
2 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
3 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
4 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
5 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
6 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
7 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
|
Commercial with Irrigation |
173 |
102 |
30 |
14 |
19 |
25 |
37 |
22 |
26 |
|
Irrigation |
396 |
107 |
42 |
48 |
74 |
100 |
104 |
26 |
2 |
|
Multifamily with Irrigation |
76 |
36 |
9 |
12 |
16 |
13 |
16 |
7 |
3 |
|
Total |
645 |
245 |
81 |
74 |
109 |
138 |
157 |
55 |
31 |
When looking at the results, CRW reviewed the financial impacts that would occur based on the difference of what the 7 months of bills actually cost in 2019 versus what they would have cost if they were based on the new adjusted budgets. The total 7-month financial impact on all 890 customers shows an increase in costs of $266,260 to the customer and the same amount of revenue for Castle Rock Water as shown in the table below.
|
Total Dollar Impact of Accounts Over Adjusted Budget |
|
Customer Class |
No Months Over Adjusted Budget |
1 Month Over Adjusted Budget |
2 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
3 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
4 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
5 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
6 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
7 Months Over Adjusted Budget |
|
Commercial with Irrigation |
$(85.42) |
$(234.24) |
$(65.88) |
$217.16 |
$1,664.13 |
$4,591.72 |
$3,569.72 |
$2,146.01 |
|
Irrigation |
$(1,168.80) |
$3,473.12 |
$7,337.76 |
$45,457.87 |
$50,255.34 |
$96,105.68 |
$46,083.38 |
$2,497.04 |
|
Multifamily with Irrigation |
$(5302) |
$93.99 |
$715.77 |
$1,486.97 |
$968.82 |
$(978.46) |
$1,821.96 |
$359.69 |
|
Total |
$(1,307.24) |
$3,332.87 |
$7,987.65 |
$47,162.00 |
$52,888.29 |
$99,718.94 |
$51,475.06 |
$5,002.74 |
Staff also looked at ranges of percentage increases and how many accounts fell into those ranges. As shown in the table below, 375 of the 890 customers had a decrease projected or no increase at all. About 407 of the customers will see an increase ranging from 1% to 20% and the remaining 108 will see increases from 20% up to increases as much as over 51%.
|
% of Cost Over 2019 Budget Using Adjusted Budget |
|
Percent of Cost Over Ranges |
Number of Accounts |
|
Bill Decreased |
139 |
|
0%-Bill Remained the Same |
236 |
|
1%-5% |
138 |
|
6%-10% |
114 |
|
10%-15% |
80 |
|
16%-20% |
75 |
|
20%-30% |
79 |
|
31%-50% |
24 |
|
51% and Above |
5 |
|
Total |
890 |
Staff Recommendation
Given these results, staff recommends that we do not implement the changes in the 2020 irrigation season but give customers another year to come into budget or at least closer into budget. Staff further recommends delaying financial impacts to customers for another year to allow this additional outreach with customers. For customers with particularly high bill impacts (>10%), staff will explore options for more individual help for these customers. The work to date has confirmed the importance of proceeding with the changes to the non-residential water budgets. There is a tremendous opportunity for more efficient use of water given the amount of over watering that is occurring.
Proposed Motion
“I move to approve the recommendation of an additional year of education for non-residential customers established between 2003 and 2018 prior to revised irrigation budgets becoming the basis for calculating bills.”
Attachments
Attachment A: Ordinance # 2018-045
Attachment B: Town Council Memo from December 14, 2018