Purpose
Recently Douglas County has implemented or is proposing to implement utility rate increases. This webpage is designed to answer frequently asked questions about utility increases and to provide information about proposed utility rate increases. If you have any questions about utility rate increases please contact the Public Works Department.
Why are Utility Rates Increasing?
Rate increases are necessary to provide sufficient revenue to meet annual operations and maintenance requirements of the systems. The increases also cover costs to pay debt principal and interest. The county is taking a proactive approach by building a reserve (capital reinvestment) to fund short term capital projects.
Why Can't the County Just Shift Funding to Cover the Cost?
In the past the county has shifted money from the General Fund to help pad the cost going back to the user. However, this shift is not sustainable.
What is a MCLG?
MCLG: Maximum Contaminant Level Goal: The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLGs allow for a margin of safety.
Is tap water safe to drink?
In order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink, EPA prescribes regulations which limit the amount of contaminants in water provided by public water systems. The table below lists all of the drinking water contaminants that we detected during the calendar year of this report. Although many more contaminants were tested, only those substances listed below were found in your water. All sources of drinking water contain some naturally occurring contaminants. At low levels, these substances are generally not harmful in our drinking water. Removing all contaminants would be extremely expensive, and in most cases, would not provide increased protection of public health. A few naturally occurring minerals may actually improve the taste of drinking water and have nutritional value at low levels. Unless otherwise noted, the data presented in this table is from testing done in the calendar year of the report. The EPA or the State requires us to monitor for certain contaminants less than once per year because the concentrations of these contaminants do not vary significantly from year to year, or the system is not considered vulnerable to this type of contamination. As such, some of our data, though representative, may be more than one year old. In this table you will find terms and abbreviations that might not be familiar to you. To help you better understand these terms, we have provided the definitions below the table.