Water & Wastewater Rate Study
Overview
The City of Laramie needs to make significant improvements in it's water and wastewater infrastructure.
The Current Water System
- 15 miles of pipe were installed prior to 1928, and most were installed before 1950
- 260 miles of pipeline need to be maintained
- The majority of the system is cast-iron pipe
- Soils in Laramie are corrosive to metal pipe
- The minimum benchmark for replacement is four miles of pipe per year, but the average replacement is one mile per year
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The Current Wastewater System
- 160 miles of wastewater pipe need to be maintained
- The age of the waterwater pipes mirrors that of the water system (most installed prior to 1950)
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The minimum benchmark for replacement is 3.5 miles per year, but the
average replacement rate has been less than one mile of pipe per year
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The Cost of Infrastructure
Following a
competitive request for proposal (RFP) process, in August 2008 the City
of Laramie engaged Red Oak Consulting (Red Oak) to conduct a water and
wastewater cost of service rate study. Red Oak’s scope also included
identification and comparison of the City’s utility performance against
industry benchmarks and facilitation of stakeholder committee meetings.
The utility financial plan indicated the need to increase water and
sewer revenues between 15% and 20% annually over the next five years,
through 2013. Such increases are required to fund increasing operations
and maintenance expenses, fund the capital replacement program, satisfy
debt service coverage requirements, and provide adequate reserves.
Additional revenue requirements will, in turn, result in the need for
annual increases in water and sewer rates.
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