Authority Rate Calculations

*In 2021, the Water Authority’s original six Charter Member communities amended the Authority’s water purchase and sale agreement, creating a new class of membership, the Customer Member.  Charter Members and Customer Members pay different wholesale water purchase rates for the following reasons:

• When Customer Members apply for membership, the Charter Members set the rates to be charged to a Customer Member after evaluating the long-term financial benefits.
• Customer Members are not responsible for the original construction of the pipeline but partially contribute to that historic cost through a Capital Recovery Rate.
• Customer Members have limited rights on the Board of Directors as compared to the Charter Members.
• Customer Members, such as the Village of Denmark, will have construction costs associated with linking to the Authority’s water transmission system that are not reflected in the Customer Member rate shown here.

Note: The wholesale water purchase rates shown here do not include all the costs of providing water directly to customer taps.  In addition to the Water Authority’s wholesale costs, each local water utility must also add the cost of operating and maintaining the water distribution system that brings quality drinking water to each home and business.  While the Water Authority’s rates are common to all the Members, the local water utility costs vary from one community to the next.  These differences explain why the overall water rate as seen on customer water bills is specific to each Member community.