A family of four in Rockville pays nearly $440 a year for city water service.
But what does a water bill actually pay for?
It costs about $11.7 million each year to deliver safe, reliable water to Rockville customers, including water treatment, water system operations and maintenance, and administrative services.
Those costs must be entirely covered by the city’s water fund, which is one of six enterprise funds in the city budget. Enterprise funds function like a private business, with costs fully recovered through user charges. Water rate increases approved last year were necessary to fund ongoing repair and replacement of aging water pipes and other infrastructure vital to providing water service.
Construction costs will total $9.7 million in 2020, including water line replacements and $7.2 million for rehabilitation of the city water treatment plant’s electrical system, which has not been upgraded since the plant on the Potomac River opened in 1958. The rehab project will replace the original substation, repair the roof, upgrade the heating and cooling system, and remodel occupied spaces to meet modern building codes.
Another project planned for 2020 will stabilize a stream bank between the treatment plant and the water intake structure on the Potomac River. Left unattended, the stream bank’s erosion could cause an electrical feed to the intake structure to fail, and could eventually damage the pipe that carries the raw water from the intake to the treatment plant.
A planned program to replace all commercial water meters, starting in 2020, aims to increase the accuracy of meter readings. Other projects include continued investment in improvements to the water distribution system to increase the flow of water to fire hydrants, improve water quality, reduce water main breaks, and replace aging pipes and other infrastructure. The city has invested more than $26 million since 2008 in such improvements and will continue to invest $3 million to $4 million each year.
Learn more about Rockville’s drinking water at rockvillereports.com/citys-water-quality-receives-high-marks-for-safety-4.