There are two components to the water rates:

Fixed costs; and Variable costs.

The District's Board of Directors commissioned a Rate Study in 2015.  The recommendations in the Rate Study were relied upon when the Board set rates in April 2016.  

Fixed costs are related to the District's costs of having a customer.  These costs include the maintenance of water mains, water meters, billing, and staffing.  Variable costs are determined by the amount of water usage that include electric power, well pump and motor wear and tear, and water treatment costs.

The purpose of the Water Service Fee is to recover an equal share of fixed costs related to the District’s water system from each customer. The equal share is determined by dividing the annually budgeted fixed costs by the total number of billed Single-Family Equivalent (SFE) units. The Water Service Fee amount billed to a customer is determined by the SFE value of the customer’s water service size.

PBHMD has eleven wells from which it pumps water.  The wells are in either the Arapahoe aquifer or Laramie Fox Hills aquifer within the Denver Basin.  PBHMD also has a Water Service Agreement that constitutes a perpetual water lease with the Meridian Service Metropolitan District.  This water is delivered to PBHMD via an interconnect it has with Meridian Ranch.