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The City of Longmont, Colorado charges water and wastewater system development fees(SDFs) to all new customers. The fees are designed to recover a proportionate share of thecosts of water and wastewater system capacity required to serve new customers. Althoughthis structure is believed to be equitable to the vast majority of new customers, City staffbelieved that the existing structure was not cost responsive for certain large users withunusual water and wastewater characteristics. The utilities' water and wastewater SDF's were historically charged according to watermeter size. A comprehensive review of water use by meter size showed a clear pattern ofoversizing of nonresidential meters. In very few instances was the full capacity of themeter being used. In accordance with traditional rate and fee methodology, existingcapacity units had been used in developing SDF's. An analysis of commercial accountswith four-inch water meters indicated 67% did not exceed the continuous flow rate for athree inch meter (2.3 MG per month). In the past few years the City has attracted nonresidential customers who intend to uselarge quantities of water and fully maximize their potential meter capacity. In manycases, their processes discharged highly concentrated effluent. It was clear to City staff that these customers were notpaying the full share of their impact on the water and wastewater systems under existingSDF's. A new SDF was developed for all new nonresidential customers with an estimatedwater flow rate in excess of either the safe peak or continuous flow capacities for a three inchwater meter. The SDF's were developed using the equity buy-in method and are basedon water system average day, peak day, and peak hour capacities and wastewater treatmentplant peak month flow and strength capacities. This paper shows the development of large nonresidential water and wastewater SDFs andgives examples of resulting SDFs for typical customers. This paper is for utilitymanagers and financial directors who wish to implement fair impact fees to largenonresidential customers. Includes tables, figure.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Number of Pages: 8File Size: 1 file , 190 KB