Zooming in
At a Dec. 16 meeting, Fulshear City Council created a water and wastewater committee—headed by At-Large Position 1 council member Camron Miller—to discuss rising rates following debate and public comment.
The committee creation comes after city officials recommended a one-year plan to increase base water fees from $19.63 to $23.56, at 5,000 gallons of usage, and volumetric rates from $8.56 to $22.82, according to agenda documents.
With the water rate structure being last set in 2022, Fulshear Utilities Director Ben Glynn said the city needed to raise prices to continue work on water projects as the area's population grows.
“Water and wastewater systems must be built ahead of demand,” Glynn said.
The current service area has topped projections, adding new accounts the city has to provide water to, said Glynn, who raised concerns about peak water usage and a desire to be able to keep up with it as it rises. Peak consumption is 267,000 gallons in one hour.
While nearly 90% of city accounts use 20,000 gallons of water or less per month—with an average account usage of 10,239 gallons per month—the city’s top 67 accounts use as much water as the bottom 5,700 users, with two accounts using more than 1 million gallons per month.
What’s next
The committee will present proposed solutions to council at a January meeting. City Council will meet next Jan. 20.
