Here’s Part Two of the Mile High Newspapers series “Unquenchable Thirst” (Megan Quinn). Ms. Quinn evaluates what goes into high quality water delivered to your tap. Click through and read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt:
Conservation is key, water providers said. In fact, water bills are often designed to encourage residents to watch their usage. In some cities, such as Thornton, Arvada, Wheat Ridge and Northglenn, rates are determined based on how much is used per month. When families use a base number of gallons, they pay one rate. But if they let the tap run long enough to spill over into the next tier of usage, the same family would pay a higher rate per gallon.
For example, an average Westminster household pays about $3.78 per 1,000 gallons. If usage goes above 20,000 gallons in a given month, the bill will hit $5.60 per 1,000 gallons instead.
Jim Sullivan, Arvada’s utilities director, said the tiered system helps encourage conservation, but it’s rare for households to move into a more expensive tier.
An average household used about 115,000 gallons of water in 2010, according to Denver Water, a public utility that serves about 1.3 million people in the metro region.
More infrastructure coverage here.