Sammamish Plateau Water & Sewer District Explains Rate Adjustment Rationale

The Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District Board of Commissioners conducted a public rate hearing on March 19, 2012 at 6 p.m. at the District Headquarters at 1510 228th Ave. SE in Sammamish. Information and supporting materials about the rate adjustments are posted on the home page of the District website at www.sammplat.wa.org and on the District's Facebook and Twitter sites. Two members of the public were in attendance.

Public notices about the rate hearing were posted in the Seattle Times, the Issaquah Press and the Sammamish Review the two Wednesdays prior to the rate hearing. The rate hearing notice was posted at the District office and on the website, Facebook and Twitter pages.  

The District adopted a new rate structure approach that reflects the actual cost of providing water and sewer service to each individual customer. 

Water customers will now pay only for water service and sewer customers will pay only for sewer service. Since the District has more water (16,500) than sewer (10,400) customers, in the past water customers have financially supported sewer customers. This will change under the new rate structure.

The major change is a greater reliance on fixed monthly base charges for water and sewer service. The fixed base charges help to provide a consistent revenue stream even if customer consumption changes due to weather conditions or decreased customer demand.

The proposed rate structure will still include a conservation based block rate structure, although some changes have been made to the rate tiers.

Under the proposed rate structure, some customers will see an increase in their monthly charges, while others will see a decrease.