National and Regional Water and Wastewater Rates For Use inCost-Benefit Models and Evaluations of Water Efficiency Programs

Technical Report · Fri Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/927324· OSTI ID:927324

Fisher, Diane C; Whitehead, Camilla Dunham; Melody, Moya

Calculating the benefits and costs of water conservation orefficiency programs requires knowing the marginal cost of the water andwastewater saved by those programs. Developing an accurate picture of thepotential cost savings from water conservation requires knowing the costof the last few units of water consumed or wastewater released, becausethose are the units that would be saved by increased water efficiency.This report describes the data we obtained on water and wastewater ratesand costs, data gaps we identified, and other issues related to using thedata to estimate the cost savings that might accrue from waterconservation programs. We identified three water and wastewater ratesources. Of these, we recommend using Raftelis Financial Corporation(RFC) because it: a) has the most comprehensive national coverage; and b)provides greatest detail on rates to calculate marginal rates. The figurebelow shows the regional variation in water rates for a range ofconsumption blocks. Figure 1A Marginal Rates of Water Blocks by Regionfrom RFC 2004Water and wastewater rates are rising faster than the rateof inflation. For example, from 1996 to 2004 the average water rateincreased 39.5 percent, average wastewater rate increased 37.8 percent,the CPI (All Urban) increased 20.1 percent, and the CPI (Water andSewerage Maintenance) increased 31.1 percent. On average, annualincreases were 4.3 percent for water and 4.1 percent for wastewater,compared to 2.3 percent for the All Urban CPI and 3.7 percent for the CPIfor water and sewerage maintenance. If trends in rates for water andwastewater rates continue, water-efficient products will become morevaluable and more cost-effective.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Director, Office of Science; Environmental ProtectionAgency
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 927324
• Report Number(s): LBNL--62722; BnR: 400408000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

57
EFFICIENCY
MAINTENANCE
WATER
water rate wastewater lifecycle analysis benefits