Inside Arvada

Inside Arvada's 2026 Water Rates

• City of Arvada • Episode 44

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Arvada’s Utility Business Manager, Chris Gray, talks through 2026 annual water, wastewater, and stormwater rate changes and how the City prioritizes projects that keep these services reliable 24/7, 365. 

In this episode: 

  • 2026 rates and fees for water, sewer, stormwater services
  • What a typical household can expect in 2026, and how Arvada rates compare to our neighbors
  • Understanding funding sources, and the enterprise model, not taxes, that fund the operational and capital costs for services
  •  Billing upgrades coming in 2026: online bills and autopay

See past presentations to City Council and more information about planning for and funding water, wastewater, and stormwater services on the Utilities Transparency webpage. 

News & Events:



Visit us at arvadaco.gov/podcast or email us at podcast@arvada.org.

SPEAKER_03:

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Inside Our Vada. I am one of your hosts, Katie Patterson, and today we have on Chris Gray. She is the utilities business manager for the infrastructure department. She's been with the city for about three and a half years and has a long career in the water, sewer, utility industry over 20 years, and previously worked for the city of Westminster before coming here. She has a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then a master's in public administration from CU Denver in Environmental Policy Management and Law. And as always, I'm joined by my co-host Sean. Hey Sean.

SPEAKER_00:

Hi, Katie. Yeah, very interesting interview today with Chris. Maybe not the flashiest subject, but it's an important one nonetheless. You know, the work that Chris and her team does is super important. It impacts everyone who lives here in Nevada. I mean, everyone pays for water. And so really appreciated Chris and the way she was able to explain and easy to understand ways why these rates and fees have to increase Hi, Chris. Welcome to Insidervada. Thanks so much for joining us. Let's just begin by telling us a little bit about yourself and uh what you do for the city.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Uh my name is Chris Gray. I've worked for the city for about three and a half years. Um I came from a different organization doing similar things, but my teams and I are responsible for the financial management and planning of the utility enterprise funds, so water, sewers, stormwater, and solid waste, um, the water resources and water supply planning and management, the efficient and effective billing of our customers for those services that they receive, and then the distribution of mail all across the city. And waste hauling. And waste hauling. I was like, we've got someone in there too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. Like you all oversee a lot. Yeah. And uh so we're gonna talk mostly today about rates going into 2026. Um City Council approved uh the kind of annual rate increase in October. Um and so, and you mentioned that our water, wastewater, stormwater, rates and fees are an enterprise fund, which um for folks who have been listening a while might remember. That means that it's kind of like a self-contained fund. It's like its own business, um separate from all of our other city general fund budget. Yes. Um so with that in mind, tell us a little bit what our rate increases gonna look like for 2026?

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Powell So for 2026, um, we look at things as each discrete fund. So I'll talk about each three, um, each of the three funds separately and then kind of combine them towards the end. So the water fund is going to see a 5% volumetric increase and an 18.3% fixed fee increase for an overall water increase of 6.9 percent. The sewer fund is going to see a 12% volumetric. We aren't increasing the fixed fee at all, so it's an overall 10.5 percent increase. And then stormwater is just a flat six percent increase.

SPEAKER_03:

Aaron Powell And volumetric for those who don't live in that world is like what you use is what you use. Right. Right. The usage rate. Yeah. Um great. And so then combined, what does that look like for folks?

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Powell That looks like, and I need to qualify this because we have so many different types of customers. Most of our customers are single-family residential. So they own a home or they live in a home, rent a home. Um that's the the most of the primary number of our customers. So we have about 92% of our 40,000-ish customers live in single-family homes. So that's the group that we run most of our comparisons for. Um that bill would look like about a$99 increase per year, which is about an 8.4% overall increase from last year. So if you use um the amount of water that we assume most single-family residents use, wastewater, stormwater, it's going to look like that.

SPEAKER_03:

Aaron Powell Yeah. And that um is based off of 250 gallons a day. Um and you know, people if often single-family homes, you have outdoor watering. So you're using a little bit more of that average in the summer, a little bit lower in the winter. Um but averages out across the year to about exactly$100. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And so you you mentioned kind of annual rate increase. It's been ticking up a little bit each year. Why do we have to increase these rates and fees each year?

SPEAKER_01:

That is a great question. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Because it is run like an enterprise fund. It's an enterprise fund, so you kind of have to manage it like a business.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Ross Powell Yes. So an enterprise fund is a government-run business, so we have to generate the funds to cover our costs. So we have to raise our rates and get the revenues in to cover what we are spending. And so our expenses break down into two major categories. Um, one is the operating fund, so that's the people, um, the parts, the pieces, the chemicals, the contracts that we have. We have two really significant contracts. We get most of our water supply from Denver Water, so we have to pay them for that. All of our city's wastewater is treated by the Metro water recovery plant, and so we have to pay them for that. Um that's the operating side of the world. And then there are capital improvement projects, which are really big projects. Um those are technically anything over$5,000, but you think of like massive water line projects, um big tanks that we're putting in, or big water line projects, or um sewer line projects. We've got a couple of those going on right now.

SPEAKER_03:

Sheridan sewer line might perhaps. The city's the reason that Sheridan's all torn up and single lane both directions right now. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's primarily due to aging infrastructure. So we've had um anybody who's lived here for a really long time has seen the city's population kind of go up and down. Um we've seen big booms and then you know periods of slower population growth. All of the stuff that was put into the city to serve the population booms back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s is now aging out. So it doesn't last forever. And we want to make sure it's working for folks. So aging infrastructure is the term we use for things that are kind of losing their lifespan.

SPEAKER_00:

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, so much more goes into it than just turning on your faucet and having the water come out and be clean enough to drink and use. But so many costs that I think people may not realize that we have to fund and pay for.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and and so much of it is underground. You know, all of the pipelines are underground. Um we don't see a lot of our tanks. They might be, you know, outside towards the edge of the city, or some of them actually are underground. And then the plants are, you know, well, we have one plant, we have two water plants, and they're on the edge of town. So you don't see them very often, but they are there.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. It's easy to forget what it uh what all goes into it. And it's reminding me of our conversation we had with Mary earlier this year where we talked about a lot of this. And so um we can link back to that episode too if folks want to hear more about projects underway now. Um and so uh rates increase to kind of keep up with operational costs, deal with these kind of aging systems. Um how do our rates compare to our neighbors? What are we looking like kind of for the region?

SPEAKER_01:

So for the region, it depends again on the fund. Um for the water fund, council asked us to look at just our closest neighbors that literally touch us. So we look at Denver, uh Wheat Ridge, Golden, Lakewood, who I think sort of touches us, and Broomfield. And so we have a handful of comparison cities. So for the water fund, we're about in the middle compared to our neighbors. For the wastewater fund or the sewer fund, we are at the high end, and that's because we are putting so much money into um some aging infrastructure right now, and so that's a big focus from the city's perspective on getting sewer pipelines up to capacity so we can handle all the wastewater. And then um stormwater is six percent. And not all of our neighbors have stormwater funds, but after the 2013 flood, a lot of folks were like, wow, we need to do something. So we're seeing a lot more movement in that world.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's like a flat rate, right? Like you can't measure how much stormwater someone's using.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh it's based on the impervious surface at your home. So think of like your driveway or if you have like a shed or where you're the foundation of your home. Right? Yeah. Yeah. The footprint of your home. Um the yeah. So anything that's not soil.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Something where the water can drain. Right. We consider that impervious and we charge you based on that.

SPEAKER_03:

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: And it's measured like every five years or something.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not measured every five years. We did a big push for that, I think, in the late teens, maybe 2020, and it's due for another review at some point. So we we need to start looking at that.

SPEAKER_00:

And you already kind of touched on and explained like the enterprise funding model, and obviously we get a lot of funding from people who are using these services and the uh bi-monthly billing and all that. But what what are the other sort of funding sources that we get to pay for all these services?

SPEAKER_01:

So it is primarily rate revenues from, rate and fee revenues from our customers. One of the things that we will do is issue debt for projects because that helps us even out the impact to our customers. And so what we look at from um from a city perspective to help all of our customers current and future is debt as an intergenerational tool. So that means that if Katie's lived here for a long time, she's not fully funding something that when I move in, I don't have to pay for. We want to make sure that all of our customers are paying for the assets they use. And so debt helps with that because we have such a long repayment period. It's 20 to 30 years, depending on the issue.

SPEAKER_00:

Aaron Ross Powell And they're not generally uh sales tax dollars, right? Like we're not pulling from the general fund.

SPEAKER_01:

Um absolutely not. Because we are considered an enterprise fund, and that's more of a state definition, um, we are supposed to generate the funds to run our own business. And so we don't take money from the general fund. Um, and we also don't loan money to the well, we might loan it perhaps. That might be an option, but we don't we don't trade money back and forth. It is very much a and Brian Archer, our CFO, can certainly speak to that, but it there's a very um hard line between funds.

SPEAKER_03:

And then another part of the funding is what we call system development charges, or sometimes they're called tap fees. Um and that helps that's a a fee that developers pay when they develop new um properties and to connect to our system. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Um tell me more about those. So those are entirely separate from customer rates and fees. So if I want to build an apartment building or um a new house on a piece of vacant land or a business in the city of Arvada, I have to pay a system development charge or a tap fee or a connection fee. And that means I'm buying into the city's water and sewer systems so that the city says, okay, you've paid us for this, we will hold this for you. It is yours to um to use now. And then once that property is built and constructed and online, they are now a customer. So they then pay rates and fees. So anybody who's bought a house in the city at some point, you know, has paid for the tap fee that went into building that house. Or if you built a business, you've paid a tap fee or a system development charge. So it's the concept behind that is that growth pays for growth. We don't want our customers paying for new folks. New folks have to pay their way into our system.

SPEAKER_03:

And so we've already kind of talked about this a little bit on kind of what our rates pay for. Um but how do we go about kind of figuring that out and and figuring out what the increases are going to be and what what we're what we're increasing them to pay for on top of maybe operational costs or things? Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So we do a budget, the city does a budget um technically every two years, and Brian might have spoken to this, but we also true it up every other year to make sure we're we're accounting for all the things we didn't know about. Um we do ask city council for rate and fee adoption every year so that we talk to them every year about what they what they can adopt to keep water and sewer and stormwater funds moving. Um so they'll pay for, in addition to operational programs, projects, pieces, parts. We'll look at primarily the capital improvement or the CIP, so capital improvement plans, CIP. We'll look at what projects those are. And we have developed a method of categorizing those projects by their criticality, by their risk. So not every project has the same weight. All of them are important, yes, but they don't all have the same impact to the system. So right now we've got um a system that categorizes projects into red, which means they're highly critical, orange projects, which are medium critical, and then yellow projects which are not as critical, they are less critical. So when we talk to city council, we break those projects out by color and we say, here's what they are, here's what they'll do, here's how much they cost in our estimate, and here's what happens if we don't do these projects. And that gives them the information about what's the consequence of not doing this project. Some of them, like the yellow projects, we can push off for maybe a year or two or longer. That will have consequences. They'll cost more, they might become orange or red projects faster because we push them off. But we already have certainly a list of red and orange projects. So it's a it's a conversation with city council about what that looks like and what they are willing to take forward.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think that um that while it's not simple to like for you all and your team to figure all of that out, I think it does really help visually kind of put in to a more digestible way of thinking about projects. I know that like we talked about Mary earlier. Mary would say they're all red projects. Um, and to what you just said too, like if you don't do them now, you kick the can down the road, it becomes more of an issue later. So um yeah, it's an interesting uh conversation with council every year. And so um we put that information on our utilities transparency webpage. So if folks are interested in learning more about how those conversations with council go, we'll link to that information too.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and it's it's definitely something we take very seriously, and it's a long conversation. We're gonna kick off this conversation in January. So for folks who are listening, we might be talking to you sooner than you thought. But for the for the enterprise funds, it is important for us to get that work moving sooner so that we can start moving that into our financial models to start providing some scenarios to city manager's office and to city council about what this might look like. And we also talk extensively with our operations team. So this is not just a handful of people in a closed room making decisions. We want to make sure that what we're doing and what we're providing for scenarios are things that the operations staff has looked at and said, yes, this is really important to us, or yeah, we could probably live with this for a little bit longer, but we want to make sure it's a conversation.

SPEAKER_00:

And at the end of the day, it's up to city council, right? They're the ultimate decision makers. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's why we like to give them some options because you know we have worked with them over the last few years a series of workshops over the summer, introducing the concepts because we have new counselors every so often, and so we need to get them up to speed. But also, you know, in the beginning there was this. And if you fund everything, here's what it could look like. And if you fund the least amount, here's what it could look like. And what are those consequences?

SPEAKER_00:

Aaron Ross Powell And then what are some of the um CIP projects around town that people might recognize? I mean a lot of this works underground, but like I know there's what a new water treatment plant that's gonna start maybe soon. That's one of the examples. What are some of the other ones?

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Ross Powell So that's one of the big water fund projects we have. We have an aging water treatment plant. We have two plants, one's our workhorse, the the Ralston plant, and then we have the Arvada plant, which was intended to be more of a seasonal or peaking plant, and that's it's aged out. And so we've um through a robust process determined that replacing it is the most cost-effective and best option for the city for the long term. So that's coming down the road. We just acquired the land for that property, and so um the city team is at, I believe, 30% design on that. So we're marching forward on that. That's coming in the next several years. So another project that you might have seen on the Capitol project list if you were watching the August 12th workshop with City Council, was we have a number of treatment plant processes that need to be improved. So there's some chemical treatment plant processes that we need to improve. On the sewer side of the world, um, like Katie mentioned earlier, we've got a lot going on around town to make sure that our sewer pipelines are not only solid enough to take the current flow, but also large enough to take future flow. And so, yes, you'll see Sheridan is being torn up. Um we've had lots of different projects all around town, and those are going to continue for a little bit longer because we still have some work to do. Those pipelines, as Mary would have mentioned, um, you know, start at the northwest part of town and come down to the southeast part of town. So they are everywhere.

SPEAKER_03:

And I think a good distinction on these um two is that it is kind of a mixed funding source. Yes. So because you were talking about future flows, like system development charges help fund these projects in addition to customer rates and fees. Exactly. Um and sewer, if I remember correctly, it's like 70-30 and then it flips for water, is that right? Like sewer is more about growth. So system development charges tend to pay into the sewer projects more. Yes. And then water is the opposite. And water tends to be more the aging infrastructure. Exactly. Um customer rates and fees pay more into that, typically. Good memory. I talk about this stuff sometimes.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Before we uh wrap up with some trivia, we like to ask all our guests kind of like an open-ended uh question of you know, what sort of misconceptions do you want to clear up? What didn't we talk about that you wanted to mention? Maybe what do you want to reiterate? And so the floor is yours, Chris. What do you want to hit on?

SPEAKER_01:

Um I think something along the lines of what council has in their strategic goals, which is to make sure that we provide the best value to our customers at the lowest possible rate. Um I know it's very challenging for customers when you see the rates increase and think maybe, wow, what are they putting in this fabulous system? We are doing what we can to keep the lights on and do what we need to do to provide a system that will operate for our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This is the only system we have. This is the only water system we have, wastewater system we have, stormwater system we have. So we can't go out and buy a new one. We have to keep this one operating. And so we want to do what we can to keep those operational while paying attention to what the impacts are to customers. When we work on rate increases and revenue increases, we are always looking at how we can make this as easy as possible for our ratepayers. Because we we all pay rates. Maybe we don't live in Arvada, but we pay rates elsewhere, and you know, we all have to bear that burden wherever we live. So we're trying to look out for our customers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. A fascinating task that you and your team have in that it's an enterprise fund run like a business, but it's a public utility. Because like I come from like the Parks End and like golf is an enterprise fund, and that's more of a traditional business, but yours is just such a unique situation that it's a public service that everyone needs. And so um, yeah, just very interesting work that you do and appreciate you coming on and explaining it to us.

SPEAKER_03:

Thanks for thanks for asking me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And I want to plug one more uh not misconception, but just info for um, because we didn't talk much about the billing team. And when it comes down to it, that's what we're talking about is rates and fees that people pay in a bill every two months. Um and the team's been working really hard on getting some improvements to that system. So um the online system is complicated and kind of hard to update. And so they're working on improvements coming in 2026 for um seeing your bill online for everybody and then auto pay um online. Right now you have to like do it old school and mail us a check. So we're gonna get that updated. So um excited for those updates for our customers. I think they'll be helpful. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that team is very into interested in and into let's make things easy for customers and answer their questions because we have 40,000 customer accounts and people have lots of questions. And so we want to make sure we make it easy for them to find their information and answer their questions. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go.

SPEAKER_01:

898-7070. Yep.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. I have three trivia questions for you. Okay. Um You won't know the answers again, but you can do your best to guess. Um Well, you might get close on the first one. Okay. Um how much water did the old town water tower hold when it was in operation, in use?

SPEAKER_01:

Is this multiple choice or just total guess?

SPEAKER_03:

I can come up with a multiple choice really. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Um half a million gallons.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna go like 250,000.

SPEAKER_03:

Sean's closer is 150,000 gallons. Wow. Um built in 1910 and decommissioned in 1977. That would explain. And by the time this comes out, hopefully they fixed the lights. So we're getting holiday lighting. Um we'll see. Uh the lights have been not working. Tech issues. Um okay, so the peak water use day in 2025 this year was August 8th. How much water was used that day?

SPEAKER_01:

I have a fairly decent idea, I hope. Um in my brain.

SPEAKER_00:

What do we have? An average of 250 gallons a day per resident times 40,000 customers. Or household, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Or household times 40,000. That's a good way to think about it. But it's it's peak water use. Yeah, so it's higher than 250 average. Not even close.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Liberal arts mean.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I remember looking at these every day.

SPEAKER_03:

34.2 million gallons. Um we end up usually around six billion gallons a year. Wow. So um billion with a B. Yeah, B, yes. Um every year is a little different. Like a few years back we had a really like really rainy year, and so water um outdoor water use was just like significantly lower. Yes. So that sort of type of stuff matters. But when you're in the billions, it doesn't matter that much. Um okay, so then the last one in 1942, the Arvada Town Board, we had a town board at the time, um, actually decreased water rates. And the rates were still per a thousand gallons. What was the new rate? 1942. 1942.

SPEAKER_00:

Are we talking per gallon?

SPEAKER_03:

So next year it's gonna be six fifty per thousand gallons. But in nineteen forty-two, this was sixty cents.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna say like twenty-five cents.

SPEAKER_03:

Sean's closer. Dang, all right. 18 cents. Wow. Um, and a minimum of$1.50 for the first 2,000 gallons. Um and so they hoped that I thought this was funny, uh little anecdote. The board hoped that by lowering rates they'd encourage our Vadins to add more lawns and landscaping to help build the town's reputation as a beautiful place to live.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh how times have changed. Right. Now we're like seriously.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow, that's different. Yeah. Well, Chris, thanks for coming on and chatting with us today. Thank you. It was fun. Thanks to both of you. And as a reminder, we love to hear from our listeners. You can text us with the link at the top of the show notes or email us at podcast at Arvada.org. We'd love episode ideas or any questions, um, especially as this is our our last episode of the year. So um anything you'd like to hear more about in 2026, let us know. Um and then news and events as we wrap up the year. What the um West 72nd Widening Project had a community open house on December 4th. And so that information from that meeting is posted online on the project website. And construction is expected to start back up in February to work on building the detour road just to the north of the existing road so that they can keep West 72nd open while they build the underpass under the railroad tracks there. So really big project. I'm excited to get that moving again. And then as we're entering the winter season, uh the city also helps coordinate with Jefferson County for cold weather sheltering throughout the winter. And so um we'll link to some information. If you know anyone who may need support this winter with um cold weather sheltering, we'll have that info for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and hard to believe it, but uh Christmas is right around the corner. And as always, the year uh the city is doing its yearly Christmas tree recycling. Um the drop-off is in the same spot it's been the past couple of years over there at Stinger Sports Complex off Oak Street, and the drop-off will be open starting December 26th through January 19th. It'll be open seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. We'll link to the webpage uh with more information about the Christmas tree recycling this year. And thank you once again to our guest, Chris Gray. Uh, as Katie mentioned, this will wrap it up for 2025. We appreciate everyone listening, and we'll see you sometime in uh mid-January 2026. Today's podcast, as always, was recorded and edited by Arvada Media Services. And the fun fact for today's episode is that the city our Arvada customers use 6.1 billion gallons of water in 2024. And that's the equivalent of 9,087 Olympic size swimming pools.

SPEAKER_03:

Whoa!