Rate Increase Letter
WheatRidgeWaterDistrict
DIRECTORS: CLANCY DEGENHART- KELLY BAILLIE -JIM MALONE-
ZACHARY URBAN – KRISTI DAVIS
TO THE CUSTOMERS OF THE WHEAT RIDGE WATER DISTRICT
Starting January 12, 2022 your current bill and continuing thereafter will reflect the four percent (4%) increase adopted by the Board of Directors of the Wheat Ridge Water District on Tuesday January 11, 2022. . The necessity for the rate increase is primarily because of a 4.31% increase in wholesale water rates by the Denver Water Board. Denver Water is our sole source of supply and represents 63% of our operating budget. In the past ten years Denver has made significant water rate increases in most years. Through efficiency of operation, the Wheat Ridge Water District raised rates only a few of those years. This is our first rate increase since 2017, and we have absorbed several Denver rate increases since then.
This year, we are unable to absorb the large rate increase, due to general increased costs, and particularly due to the projected $2,500.000.00 cost of replacement of our Wadsworth Boulevard main line necessitated by the City of Wheat Ridge Wadsworth Boulevard widening project.
Additionally, the District is working through a program to update all the remaining seventy-year-old cast iron mains in the district with larger, modern ductile iron and PVC mains. Since 1975 we have successfully replaced approximately two-thirds of our mains without any bonded indebtedness.