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EN HILLS MEMORANDUM DATE: December 19, 2022 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers Dave Perrault, City Administrator FROM: Gayle Bauman, Finance Director SUBJECT: Winter Averaging Budgeted Amount: Actual Amount: N/A N/A Council Should Consider AGENDA ITEM —1B Funding Source: N/A Council should consider providing feedback on the criteria currently being utilized for Winter Averaging. Background Winter averaging is a practice by which water use during the winter months is used to determine maximum sewer charges for the remaining months. Your sewer bill is based upon your water consumption. Outdoor water use (such as irrigation and recreational use) does not typically enter the city's wastewater system and using winter averaging consumption therefore, prevents the wastewater portion of your utility from spiking during the summer. Discussion For the City of Arden Hills, we look at the customer's water consumption during the months of January, February and March in determining the winter average. In Minnesota, many residents may be away from their home for extended periods of time during the first quarter of the year, which will distort the sewer consumption that will occur over the remaining quarters of the year. This is one of the reasons we have a 9,000 gallon minimum winter average amount per quarter. Also, studies show that the average person uses 3,000 gallons of water per month (9,000 per quarter). Based on this, we would expect a family of 4 to average 12,000 gallons per month (36,000 per quarter). And a utility survey we take part in uses 6,000 gallons per month (18,000 per quarter) when making comparisons across communities. When Ehlers completed our rate study back in 2018, they had anticipated the City using a 15,000 gallon minimum for winter averaging. After reviewing available information and usage throughout the City, it was determined that 9,000 gallons was a better fit for our community. Page I of 2