Newport has very interesting rates

             I have a new Facebook friend.  Her profile said that she lives in Newport, Oregon so I looked up your water and sewer rates.  These are unique in my experience in that you charge people outside the city the same as inside the city.  You have only about 10,680 people in the city, so you apparently are trying for as many customers as you can get to share the overhead.  I heard you have about 15,000 customers.  You could probably attract more if you make your minimum charges cover your overhead, lower unit rates to actual unit costs, and drop the low-income discounts.

            If Newport uses its minimum charges to cover all overhead plus unit costs within the minimums, low-income households won’t need discounts.  It isn’t base rates or monthly minimum charges that kill budgets; it’s high unit rates.  Low-income people who live many to a house can’t stay within the minimum charge or even close to it when unit rates are high.

This goes double for sewer rates, units for which are generally calculated from winter water use, which is presumed to all go down the sewer.  Three of the thirteen cities on our rate comparison chart still charge no unit rates on sewer: Portland, Oregon; Medford, Oregon; and Redding, California. 

Unit charges on sewage is a relatively new way to ration water and is particularly unfair to low-income people who live many to a house.  Your customers can’t cut the amount of waste they put down the drain, but they can cut their use of the water needed to carry their waste to the wastewater plant.  Get rid of unit rates on sewer and make water units cheap again.  The poor and middle class will be able to afford them again, and sewer pumps and pipes will be less likely to clog.  

Newport has only three water unit rates: Residential, including Single Family and Multi-Family; Commercial, which includes governments; and Single Family low income qualified, which has a 30% discount.  You have no such discount on water for Multi-Family, likely because apartment landlords pay city utilities for their residents.  Few unit rates are a good thing.  A single unit rate would be better.

Newport's unit rates are otherwise flat (no tiers) and pretty high: $4.24/1000 gallons for Residential; 4.77/1000 for Commercial; and $2.96/1000 for Single Family low income.  These are water-rationing rates, but I have yet to find a city without them.  They are remarkable in that residents have lower rates than non-residential users.

Newport doesn’t have base rates, but rather minimum charges according to service size, which are obviously not designed to cover all the overhead, at $19.61 for Single Family Residential 5/8”-3/4” and $13.73 for Single Family 5/8”-3/4” low income, which buys 4,625 gallons and 4,623 gallons respectively.  Multi-Family minimum charge starts at $37.42, which is likely what your minimum charge for 5/8”-3/4” would be if your minimums covered the overhead, as the city wants to get that covered whether an apartment is rented or not. 

            Your wastewater unit rates are also high.  They run $6.62 for Single Family and duplexes, with a minimum charge of 25.81, and $4.63/1000 for Single Family and duplexes low income, minimum $18.07.  Multi-family is $9.82/1000, minimum $29.76.  This is the same as paid by Commercial, which also has extra charges for Extra Strength waste that needs more biochemical oxygen. 

The biggest problem with water-rationing rates is that they cause rates to rise far faster than inflation.  High unit rates are designed to cut use, but low minimums or base rates depend on use to pay part of the overhead.  When they work as designed and people cut back on use to save money, rates must be raised to cover the overhead.  Raising unit rates causes lower use, so they have to be raised again, which further lowers use and rates are raised again.

This vicious pricing spiral continues until people can’t cut back any further.  Seattle may have gotten to that point with water at $15.78/1000g on their highest tier inside the city and over $18 outside it.  Everybody ends up paying more and more to use less and less water with water-rationing rates.

            In any case, high unit rates are not justified by the need to pay for water and sewer plants; they make it harder, not easier.  Their impact on household and business budgets hurts lower and middle-class households who use city water and sewer plants and every sector of our economy except water and sewer rate consultants.  They also reduce hygiene, fire safety, and the beauty and livability of our cities.

Newport may regret these rates if Oregon has another katabatic wind event like September 8, 2020 that blows wildfire right through your town.  Keeping property watered stores moisture in plants and soil and keeps deciduous trees too wet to burn.  You should be encouraging irrigation, not discouraging it.

            Coastal cities have problems with seawater infiltrating their fresh ground water.  More irrigation can fill aquifers and keep the seawater out.  Florida is probably having this problem because they are also rationing water by price and discouraging irrigation.

            I believe that Grants Pass also had minimum charges instead of base rates when I lived here for two years in the ‘80s, because I recall my utility bills being flat except in summer, when unit charges added only pennies to my bill.

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 Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener        541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com