Water Billing

In October, 2021, the City of Iowa Colony began the process to transition water and wastewater services from the various Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs) to being provided as a city service.  This was a part of the original plans of development entered into between the developers and the city government, and will foster many improvements and efficiencies that cannot realistically occur by operating multiple, disconnected systems.

The City has already begun the process of upgrading the existing water meters to the newer AMI (Automated Metering Technology) meters, which will by themselves provide improved leak detection and a robust customer portal where each customer can monitor their own water consumption and establish their own customized alerts for usage.

The City has been asked repeatedly about the water quality, and particularly about the different levels of quality in different areas of town.  By connecting the systems together, and investing in systemwide improvements, we will be able to provide a higher quality of water throughout the entire city, and all under a single rate structure.  Currently, residents are paying different water rates depending on their MUD.  The new rate structure will be uniform through the City.

Water & Sewer Rates 

Once the "proposed" water rate has had its second reading and final adoption by City Council, the City will begin the process of assuming operational control of the MUDs as each MUD finalizes the conveyance agreement with the City.  SiEnvironmental, who operates the facilities for each MUD currently, will continue to operate the facilities and provide billing support to the City.  

Ahead of each fiscal year commencing in October, the City will be undertaking an assessment of the expenses tied to delivering dependable and high-quality water services to Iowa Colony residents as part of the annual budget adoption process.

As mentioned above, the uniform rate structure will apply throughout the City, as MUD areas are added to the City system.  

The base rate for water includes the first 5,000 gallons of usage for residential customers and the first 2,000 gallons of usage for commercial accounts.  Usage above the base amount is then calculated at the appropriate amount from the rate structure.  

To place commercial users on the same scale as residential customers, and to reserve the volume of water that is required for their respective water meter size, the base amount is multiplied by the number of living-unit equivalents (LUEs) applicable for their meter size.  

Sewer fees will be a set amount, not based on consumption.  The same LUE multiplier applies to commercial accounts to get them on an equivalent scale with residential customers. 

Residential and Commercial rate structures are outlined in the following chart:

Utility Billings
(click here for a downloadable version of the chart below)