EFC | Georgia Water and Sewer Rates and Rate Structures

Listen to a recorded webinar on Georgia's water and sewer rates in 2009.
Annual Reports and Tables Updated September 2009	Interactive Tools and Dashboards Updated September 2009
View Your Utility's Rate Sheet(s) Updated September 2009	Publications and Other Information
Project Description	Related Links

Project Description

Georgia's utilities use many different rate structures under an economic regulatory framework that has few rate setting requirements. These different rates and rate structures have financial impacts on revenue stability, household expenditures, and water use behavior. Different rate strategies influence resource use differently and, conversely, efforts to curtail resource use (for example, conservation) have unique revenue impacts depending on a utility's rates, rate structure, and customer base. Despite the critical nature of these impacts, little is known about rate structure design among utilities across the State.

This survey is far more comprehensive than past surveys which have had small sample sizes and represented only the largest systems in the State. Survey results comprise rate information for more than 90 percent of all local government owned utilities in the State, serving over 95 percent of all customers served by public water systems.

A novel customer expenditure model developed by EFC was used to calculate water and wastewater bills for any consumption amount. The development of the model represents a breakthrough in the methodology for carrying out large sample size utility rate surveys. For the first time in such studies, customer bills were calculated across a spectrum of customer consumption, rather than one or two discrete consumption levels (e.g. the bill for 5,000 gallons consumed). The results give insight to the rate setting objectives in place at a particular utility. For example, a utility might have particularly high bills at large consumption levels to encourage resource conservation or particularly low bills at small consumption levels to make the minimum level of services more affordable. Tables of the results and a report summarizing main findings are all available in Adobe pdf format above.

For more information, contact Program Managers: Andrew Westbrook and Stacey Isaac Berahzer.

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Annual Reports and Tables of Rates and Rate Structures

The Environmental Finance Center and the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority published short reports and tables summarizing hundreds of rates, rate structures and trends currently in use across the state of Georgia. Tables list each surveyed utility's residential and commercial rate structures and billing totals for various consumption levels. This information can assist elected officials and staff as they make decisions related to water and wastewater services during budget preparations.

Note: Please compare different utility rates with caution. High rates may be justified and necessary to protect public health.

Rates in 2009 (published: August 2009) 473 utilities participated in the survey
- Annual Report (18 pages, 0.6 Mb, pdf)
- Tables of Rate Structures and Bills (256 pages, 4.3 Mb, pdf) ; Excel version (0.9 Mb)
Rates in 2008 (published: July 2008) 477 utilities participated in the survey
- Annual Report (16 pages, 0.9 Mb, pdf)
- Tables of Rate Structures and Bills (138 pages, 13.3 Mb, pdf); Excel version (1.0 Mb)

Rates in 2007 (published: March 2007) 415 utilities participated in the survey
- Annual Report (9 pages, pdf)
- Tables of Rate Structures and Bills (70 pages, 2.2 Mb, pdf); Excel version (2.6 Mb)

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View Your Utility's Rate Sheet(s)

To view your utility's rate sheet, please select from the drop down menu. A pdf file of 2-9 pages will appear (requires Adobe Reader). Please note that some utilities may have more than one rate sheet.

Rates as of August 2009. Contact the utilities directly for the latest, most accurate information.
If you notice an error in your utility's rate structure, please contact Andrew Westbrook.

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Publications, Presentations and Analyses Using GA Rates Data

For all information about water and wastewater rates, charges and fees, click here.

Presentations on Georgia Rates

View a recording of an online presentation of the 2008 GA Rates Survey results and tables, and a demonstration of how the Rates Dashboard works. The recording is 59 minutes long, and you can skip within the recording. Please turn on your speakers to listen to the presentation.

Click here to download the Powerpoint presentation slides.

Publications on Georgia Rates (click here for the annual summary reports)

EFC (2008). What Georgians are Paying for Water and Sewer Services.
A presentation given at the Southeastern Environmental Flows Conference, October 28th, 2008.

EFC (2008). 2008 Georgia Water & Sewer Rates Dashboard.
A presentation given at the Georgia Rural Water Association Fall Conference, October 27th, 2008.

EFC (2008). Setting Rates -2008 Georgia Water & Sewer Rate Survey.
A presentation given to the Georgia Government Finance Officers Association, October 7th, 2008.

EFC (2008). 2008 Georgia Water & Sewer Rate Survey.
A presentation given at the Georgia Association of Water Professionals Annual Conference & Expo, August 19th, 2008.

EFC (2007). Water Pricing Signals in Georgia. EFC, Chapel Hill, NC.
A short memorandum analyzing water price signals and specificially price signals for water conservation among utilities across Georgia using data from the 2006-07 Georgia Water and Sewer Rates Survey.

GEFA and EFC (2007). “2006-07 Georgia Water and Sewer Rates Survey”. 2007 Georgia Water Resources Conference, Athens, GA..
This presentation, which was made during the 2007 Georgia Water Resources Conference, included a discussion about GEFA and the EFC and the impetus behind the Rates Survey in Georgia as well as methodology, response rates and results from the Survey.

EFC (2007). “Residential Water and Sewer Rates in Georgia”. 2007 Georgia Water Resources Conference, Athens, GA..
This paper, submitted to the 2007 Georgia Water Resources Conference, contains a discussion of the residential water rates and customer's bills based on data from the 2006-07 Rates Survey. It also contains a brief dicussion on the pricing and revenue stability implications of various rate structures in Georgia.

EFC (2007). “Water and Wastewater Rates and Rates Structures in Georgia”. 2007 Paying for Water Conference, USEPA, Atlanta, GA..
This poster was presented at the Paying for Water Conference hosted by the US EPA in Atlanta in 2007. Graphs and figures depict rates and rate setting trends across the state in 2006-07.

Publication using non-GA rates:

Thorsten, Richard E., Shadi Eskaf and Jeffrey Hughes (2008). "Cost Plus: Estimating Real Determinants of Water and Sewer Bills". Public Works Management & Policy, 13: 3. Published online on December 4, 2008.
We ran regressions to examine whether various factors besides cost factors influenced the rates that utilities charge their residential customers. We found that cost factors, operating ratio, average temperature, the application of "outside" rates, utilities' primary importance on affordable rates and the neighboring utilities' rates are statistically significantly correlated to the average combined water and sewer bill that utilities charge their average customer in North Carolina.

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The Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) is an agency of the State of Georgia, created by an act of the General Assembly in 1983, specifically to provide low interest water and wastewater loans to Georgia's local governments. Our Mission is to Provide financing and other support services for infrastructure improvements, energy programs and fuel storage systems that result in a cleaner environment for all Georgians.		The Environmental Finance Center (EFC), based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and with an office in Atlanta, serves the Southeast region for the US EPA's Environmental Finance Program. EFC works with local communities and government agencies to address environmental management challenges by developing innovative financial management and environmental policy strategies and systems.