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Description of the TX Water Rates Dashboard
Texas's utilities use many different water rate structures. These different rates and rate structures have financial impacts on revenue stability, household expenditures, and water use behavior. Various rate strategies influence resource use differently and, conversely, efforts to curtail resource use (for example, conservation) have unique revenue impacts depending on a utility's rates, rate structure, and customer base. Information on how utilities in Texascharge for water service is important for utilities in benchmarking their current rates and financial performance.
This Rates Dashboard is included in Smart Management for Small Water Systems nationwide project of the Environmental Finance Center Network (EFCN). The EFCN is composed of numerous Environmental Finance Centers around the country, including the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Smart Management for Small Water Systems is the result of a cooperative agreement with the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
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This interactive rates and financial benchmarking dashboard is designed to assist utility managers and local officials with analyzing residential water and wastewater rates against multiple characteristics, including utility finances, system characteristics, customer base socioeconomic conditions, and geography. Special thanks to the Texas Municipal League for providing the results of their water and wastewater surveys.
Comparison Groups
2016 residential rates for 650 utilities across Texas can be compared with:
- All other utilities in the dashboard
- Utilities with similar number of accounts
- Utilities with similar household income
- Utilities in the same watershed
- Utilities with the same water source type
- Utilities within 25 miles distance
- Utilities within 50 miles distance
- Utilities within 100 miles distance
- Utilities within the same Congressional district.
Key Financial Indicators
The following measures for the selected utility are compared to key indicators or to the utilities within the selected comparison group:
- Monthly water/wastewater bills,
- Monthly bill as a percentage of Median Household Income for the service community,
- Average household water use.
You can compare the monthly bill charged for the selected monthly amount of usage. You can also raise rates by up to 100% and observe the (hypothetical) effects on the utility's rates, conservation pricing signal, operating ratio, and rate affordability.
In addition, system financial health and customer demographic profiles are provided for utilities where data are available.
Funding
This Rates Dashboard was constructed as part of the Smart Management for Small Water Systems nationwide project of the Environmental Finance Center Network (EFCN). The EFCN is composed of numerous Environmental Finance Centers around the country, including the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, which created this dashboard. This dashboard was created under a cooperative agreement with the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
View a video tutorial on how to use a 2010-version of a similar state dashboard:
Rates data: The rates for the Texas Dashboard were collected from utilities by the Texas Municipal League. Each utility's rates are standardized to monthly billing and thousands of gallons for the purposes of fair comparison on the Dashboard.
Demographic data: The American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (2012-2016) from the US Census Bureau
System characteristics, such as number of connections and water source type: Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Information System
Geographic: United States Geological Survey
If your utility is not included on your state’s dashboard, it may be that a rate sheet was not received during the survey collection period, or clarifying questions went unanswered.
By utilizing the “Edit Data or Add Utility” button on the upper right corner of the Dashboard, you can temporarily compare your water and wastewater rates against other utilities. Please note that data are only available locally and will not be saved within the Dashboard.
If you were not contacted for rates by the EFC, please reach out to Annalee Harkins with your utility’s name and contact information for future surveys.
Please contact Annalee Harkins. We will do our best to update your rates as soon as possible!
Data can be edited temporarily by utilizing the “Edit Data or Add Utility” button located in the upper right corner of the Dashboard. Please note that data are only available locally and will not be saved within the Dashboard.
Dials such as “Cost Recovery” and “Affordability” rely on supplemental data in making calculations. When supplemental data is not available for a utility, the message is displayed and the dial is blanked out.
Each dial has a “?” button which shows how the dial is calculated, the data used in the calculation, and a brief explanation of the dial’s purpose.
Please send a data request to Annalee Harkins.
Rates Dashboards are primarily funded through contracts with state and Federal governments. If you are interested in a Rates Dashboard for your state, please contact Annalee Harkins.
Dashboards with annual contracts such as NC and GA are updated approximately the same time each year. Other states are updated on a per-contract basis.
Utilities may send corrections if their rates are incorrectly displayed on the dashboard. These corrections are implemented on a quarterly basis.
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