Water authority delays retail rate change, adopts capital cost recovery fee to charge new hookups

The Spalding County Water Authority voted to keep its current retail water rates in place until staff completes a customer database “scrubbing” and Cogdell completes system testing. The board also approved a capital cost recovery fee (capacity fee) designed to require new customers to pay a share of preexisting system capacity.

The board’s action to delay a planned new retail rate structure — previously recommended by consultant Raftelis — will remain in effect until staff verifies the cleaned customer data and Cogdell finishes back-testing the proposed rate structure. General Manager Joseph Johnson said the data scrubbing is complete and has been sent to the City of Griffin; he estimated testing could be finished by the end of June.

Separately, the authority approved a capital cost recovery fee based on Raftelis’ water rate analysis. Under the approved approach, the authority will use an Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) of 250 gallons per day for the residential charge. The board approved a residential capacity fee of $2,300 per new home (in addition to the tap fee). For nonresidential accounts, the authority will compute fees using estimated development demand or meter-size equivalency; the board approved using the development-demand ratio of ERUs for commercial accounts and agreed to bring atypical large developments to the board for specific review.

Board members discussed hardship concerns for residents who may need to connect to water (for example, if a private well fails). Board members asked staff to research hardship policies and whether the City of Griffin’s existing hardship and collection practices would apply or be adapted. Joseph Johnson said the authority’s contract with the City of Griffin defaults to Griffin’s collection methods, and staff will research whether the capacity fee and tie-on charge can be treated as a pass-through on Griffin’s bill and how hardship protections would apply if needed.

The board also discussed implementation details: the ERU was described as based on AWWA best practices and typical residential meter sizes (5/8- or 1-inch meters), with multipliers for larger meters. Staff said the fee is effective immediately as approved and that they will present firm calculation language for commercial accounts at a future meeting.

The motions to maintain current retail rates until testing/scrubbing is complete and to approve the capital cost recovery fee were moved, seconded and recorded as approved by the board.