{"id":26297,"date":"2024-07-24T21:13:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T03:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-hears-communitys-complaints-and-revises-water-rates\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:37:36","slug":"cortez-city-council-hears-communitys-complaints-and-revises-water-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-hears-communitys-complaints-and-revises-water-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez City Council hears community\u2019s complaints and revises water rates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ordinance
Ordinance No. 1013, established in Cortez in 2004, restricts the watering of lawns between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. from May 15 to Sept. 15 each year. (Adobe stock image)<\/span>Valitov Rashid<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In response to numerous complaints about high water bills, the City Council reverted to a fixed rate instead of a tiered one at its meeting July 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a good stab at it. I think this is a step in the right direction, but the reality is, it\u2019s just not working as presented or intended,\u201d City Manager Drew Sanders said at the meeting. \u201cWe will do away with the tiered structure for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

For single-family homes, the base rate of $31.80 \u2013 which includes the first 1,000 gallons of water used \u2013 remains. From there, each additional 1,000 gallons will cost $3.73.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you use 2,000 or 20,000 (gallons), you\u2019re paying $3.73 per thousand. The tiered system we were trying to do was up to a certain point, you pay $3.73, but anything over that, you\u2019re going to pay more because that\u2019s seen as above average,\u201d Medina said.<\/p>\n

These new rates will be reflected in bills for July 1 watering and on, Sanders said.<\/p>\n

Multifamily homes and commercial buildings pay a different rate that\u2019s raised once they use over 36,000 gallons of water. These rates were not changed at the meeting.<\/p>\n

In December, the council agreed to adopt a more aggressive, tiered rate system effective Jan. 1 this year. The move was in response to a water study by SEH, Inc. and what it recommended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rates that we adopted are actually higher than what was proposed to us, so that is definitely our mistake that we need to own,\u201d said Mayor Rachel Medina at the meeting.<\/p>\n

\"Mayor
Mayor Rachel Medina<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe got proposed two different options and \u2026 we added yet another tier and made our tiers \u2026 more expensive than what was proposed to us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The goal was to fund maintenance projects and target the city\u2019s aging water infrastructure, something previous councils and staff didn\u2019t prioritize, Medina said.<\/p>\n

Another goal was to figure out a threshold for what extreme water use looked like, and disincentivize that kind of consumption, she said.<\/p>\n

Sanders pointed out how the tiered rates didn\u2019t work as promised in many cases. Some water bills were 70% to 100% higher this May than they were in May 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem became a little more acute in June \u201924 when the weather became even warmer,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n

Several community members spoke out at the previous meeting on July 9 about the costly rates. Something had to change.<\/p>\n

They said they can\u2019t afford the new rates, and that they were being penalized for keeping their lawns green.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to fall back on our normal system so we have time to reevaluate and have a better rate system next year,\u201d Medina said.<\/p>\n

That system may or may not be tiered and will be decided early December.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, the council will look through data and discuss how much money they need to replace aged lines and fund operations and maintenance at the treatment plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure we raise enough money for that, but we also need to balance that with what our community can afford. We don\u2019t want to bankrupt them with charging too much,\u201d Medina said.<\/p>\n

Each year, the council raises its water rates to support its enterprise fund, which pays for maintenance projects and such things in the following year.<\/p>\n

Conservation is a secondary bonus in all this, Medina said.<\/p>\n

Daily conservation, however, can be crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur water treatment plant can only process so much water in one day,\u201d said Medina. \u201cWe need to be more water efficient in terms of conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the city uses the maximum amount of treated water it can each day, it puts enormous strain on the treatment plant and thus jeopardizes it, Medina said.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the plant can treat 10 million gallons of water a day, though it\u2019s put in jeopardy at 8 million, said Randy Hunt, the water plant superintendent.<\/p>\n

During summer, it treats 3.5 million to 4 million gallons, so the plant is not treating water at its full capacity, Hunt said.<\/p>\n

Still, some council members thought the tiered rates were reasonable, since higher water users put a greater strain on the system.<\/p>\n

Plus, before the latest study by SEH, Inc., the last one was done in 1986.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Cortez\u2019s water rates have not been based on real data and so this is going to be a change,\u201d said Mayor Pro Tem Lydia DeHaven at the meeting. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to work with the community and get used to what our real data says about the cost of water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t intend for people\u2019s bills to double, but I do support in the future that we continue looking at a tiered system based on some different data,\u201d DeHaven said.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Matthew Keefauver pointed out that in future discussions, they\u2019ll have to consider the waterlines that need replacing and plan to do that work.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we do need to recognize where we live,\u201d said Keefauver. \u201cThere are ways for us to maintain green lawns that are maybe not quite as water intensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you water your lawn early in the morning \u2013 between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. \u2013 or late in the evening \u2013 between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. \u2013 less water is evaporated in the heat of the day, according to a report<\/a> by the Public Works Department.<\/p>\n

The report further recommends to wet \u201cthe soil four to six inches deep with several days between watering.\u201d Watering twice a week allows the grass to develop deep, drought-resistant roots.<\/p>\n

Mowing less and leaving clippings on the lawn also lends itself to healthier grass that holds water and moisture better, so try and aim for blades around 3 inches tall, the report said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, in lieu of Kentucky bluegrass, folks can have a green lawn \u2013 and avoid xeriscaping \u2013 if they opt for less thirsty grasses like fescues, blue gramma, wheat grass and buffalo grass, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreen grass is not supposed to grow in the desert,\u201d one citizen said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Another person pointed out that a positive from all this is that it\u2019s made people aware of how much water they\u2019re using.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a resource we can\u2019t waste,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Medina agreed with that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that citizens with high water bills take this opportunity to evaluate and make sure they don\u2019t have leaks,\u201d she said. \u201c(It\u2019s) an opportunity for them to evaluate their own water use and make sure they\u2019re being efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rates ultimately were revised because of the concerns community members raised a few weeks ago, which prompted the council to reevaluate its tiered rate structure.<\/p>\n

And so, while the new fee structure is developed over the next few months, \u201cthe public will have opportunities to be part of the discussion and will provide input and learn and be educated,\u201d Medina said.<\/p>\n

Sanders said that he\u2019s hopeful the public will get involved, because \u201cwe need to hear from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens is, people come when it\u2019s something they figure effects them, and it\u2019s kind of a single-issue thing and then they quit paying attention,\u201d said Sanders. \u201cThis is not something that anybody should stop paying attention to. We want you to pay attention to it, and we need your input.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council ends tiered water rate structure \u2013 for now \u2013 and adopts a fixed rate for single-family homes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1429,28,29,295,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez-city-council","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-water","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79303,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26297\/revisions\/79303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26297"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}