Effective: July 1, 2023
Monthly Charges: As shown (Billed bi-monthly)
Base Rate: $25.00 per month (zero gallons of water)
System Enhancement Fee: $85.00 per month
Tier Structure Cost Breakdown:
Tier 1: 0 - 8,000 gallons $4.00 / 1000 gallons
Tier 2: 8,001 – 16,000 gallons $6.00 / 1000 gallons
Tier 3: 16,001 – 24,000 gallons $10.00 / 1000 gallons
Tier 4: 24,001 and over gallons $15.00 / 1000 gallons
System Development Charge: $6,429 (new service)
Service Connection Fee:
¾” standard meter $1,500
1” meter $2,000
This fee includes District supplied materials, meter, and valves and includes supervision and inspection of the installation.
Owner must provide valid plumbing permit from Tillamook County.
Labor and additional materials as required for the installation to be paid for by the Owner directly to their contractor.
Other: District rules require a pressure reducing valve and hand shutoff valve near the entry point of the house.
Cross Contamination: In conformance of District policy on possible cross contamination, customer may be required to install an approved backflow prevention device at their own cost.
System Enhancement (SE) Fee Explanation
The Neahkahnie water bill is now composed of three items.
A base rate of $25 per month which is intended to provide funds to be used for operations and capital improvements.
Loan maintenance costs—identified as “system enhancement fees” (SEF)—personally I think this a not very descriptive, but it is a term that has been used for years—these costs comprise the following (on a monthly basis):
$20 which is paying off a loan taken to replace main water lines, a project that was done about 2006.
$15 which is paying off a loan of about $1MM which was taken to make the original offer on the land that constitutes the watershed for 3 of our springs—part of this loan was used to pay for litigation costs and part for land purchase.
$ 50 which is paying off a loan of $2.1MM which was taken to finalize the purchase of the watershed land and additional litigation costs.
[you may recall that the District condemned the land to preserve it from a development that would have placed about 30 septic tanks in our watershed—after several years of litigation there was a settlement that involved a payment of $1.75MM for the land but also under Oregon law the District had to pay the other party’s attorney fees so the overall cost including the District’s attorney fees was almost $3 MM]
Water usage fees
The costs given above (excluding water usage) total $110 per month. However, currently we bill on a bi-monthly basis, so you are seeing a bill of $220 plus your water usage fees.