While water bills in Frisco are increasing, North Texas Municipal Water District officials said it is not due to an increase in the city’s water usage, but rather a need to make sure water infrastructure continues to keep up with demand of a growing North Texas population.
The wholesale water rates the North Texas Municipal Water District charges its 13 member cities, including Frisco, include two components: the cost of the actual water to the city along with infrastructure costs, NTMWD Public Relations Manager Janet Rummel said.
Then, each city in turn determines its own water rate structure for its residential, commercial and industrial customers, which is generally based on the amount of water usage so heavy water consumers pay more, she said.
The water rate increases taking effect in January—5 percent and 14 percent for water and sewer rates, respectively—are not because of increased water usage on Frisco’s part, but because of the infrastructure needs of the growing water district. The NTMWD’s North Texas service area is expected to increase from 1.6 million current water users to more than 3.7 million users by 2070, according to information from the district’s website.
“NTMWD is raising its water rates to member cities to pay for new infrastructure needed to meet public demand. As a member city, Frisco is impacted by those rising costs,” Mayor Maher Maso said. “In September, our council approved new water rates to cover the costs being imposed on Frisco by the district. Nevertheless, our residents’ [conservation] habits help us keep our water rates among the lowest in the region.”
Despite its rapid growth, Frisco’s efforts to become a leader in water conservation have kept the city’s water usage at a minimum. These efforts have kept the city from having to increase the amount of water it purchases from the NTMWD each year, which could affect both city coffers and residents’ pocketbooks.
Water contract
Because of the way the city’s contract with the NTMWD is structured, any time the city sets a new high water usage level in a single year—known as the minimum annual demand—it is obligated to pay the district for at least that much water the next year, regardless of whether it actually uses that much again.
With major developments taking shape including projects along Frisco’s $5 Billion Mile as well as other commercial and residential projects, growth is likely to drive an increase in water usage throughout the city. In turn, growth is likely to increase how much water will need to be purchased from the water district.
Once a city sets a new minimum annual demand, the amount of water it is required to purchase from the district will never go down, under the terms of the current contract.
District officials said the water rate contract structure allows it to be able to provide for both current demand and future needs.
“The NTMWD has built and issued bonds for the infrastructure costs to meet those historic peak demands and still must fund the bond payment and ongoing maintenance costs for those pipelines and systems, regardless of the amount of water used,” Rummel said.
Frisco set its minimum annual demand for water usage in fiscal year 2012-13 at 9.97 billion gallons of water.
Because of drought and substantially increased water restrictions and conservation measures, the city used much less water the following two years.
For FY 2014-15, Frisco only used 7.7 billion gallons of water but paid for 9.97 billion gallons.
While the city is still responsible for paying for its minimum annual demand for water each year, it does receive rebates for the chemicals and power not needed for treatment and delivery of the water that not used or needed, Rummel said.
For example, for the 2.27 billion gallons the city was responsible for paying for but did not use in FY 2014-15, it received $1.14 million in rebate money from the district.
District officials said member cities benefit from the NTMWD water contract at different points in their development.
Cities that are primarily built-out, such as Plano, and have better water infrastructure and conservation measures in place today than the year they set their minimum annual demand, are suffering from the contract, according to district officials.
Officials say the water contract balances itself out over time because fast growth cities tend to increase water usage every year.
Frisco has been somewhat of an anomaly to that water district rationale in recent years because it has been so successful at conserving water.
Even though the city is growing in population, water usage has not increased accordingly.
“Our community is a leader in water conservation,” Maso said. “Our residents’ conscientiousness about water conservation and efficiency has resulted in Frisco being honored with four awards just this year, including Texas’ two top awards for water conservation.”
Frisco’s conservation measures
Earlier this year, the city of Frisco updated its own water efficiency plan to help reduce the usage of water overall.
The message the city conveys to its residents is to leave sprinkler systems off unless watering is needed.
City officials recommend residents water their lawns once per week and twice per week only if data from the city’s weather station supports the need to water a second day.
This year, however, with the relxation of biweekly watering restrictions in place during FY 2014-15 year, usage has continued to trend upward compared to last year.
Recently, the city has recommended turning sprinkler systems off because most grasses are going dormant this time of the year.
