NTMWD Adopts Fiscal Year 2022 Budget to Meet Essential Services Commitment

Regional water and solid waste rates remain flat, regional wastewater rate to increase WYLIE, TX – September 27, 2021: The North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) Board of Directors has adopted a fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget focused on limiting budget increases while still meeting the essential needs of two million North Texans. The $589.67 million budget keeps the wholesale water rate unchanged for the third consecutive year at $2.99 per thousand gallons of treated water for its member cities. While the five cities who participate in the regional solid waste system will also see no increase in cost per ton, the regional wastewater system includes increases to fund infrastructure required to support our growing region. The NTMWD FY22 budget and system rates go into effect on October 1.

“The District remains in sound financial condition,” said Jenna Covington, NTMWD Executive Director and General Manager. “We navigated challenges associated with the ongoing pandemic, escalating costs and Winter Strom Uri while finding ways to minimize financial impacts to the communities we serve. We continue to meet our commitment and obligations to protect public health and the environment at a reasonable cost across all systems.”

The 13 member cities – Allen, Farmersville, Forney, Frisco, Garland, McKinney, Mesquite, Plano, Princeton, Richardson, Rockwall, Royse City and Wylie – are partners in the regional water system. Other communities contract for water from NTMWD or cities served by the District with a total of up to 80 communities receiving water from NTMWD on a daily basis. All cities set their own retail rates to cover their costs for delivering water to homes and businesses from their local systems.

The FY22 water system budget includes an increase in operations and maintenance budgets due to the cost of chemicals and electricity used in the water treatment process. The FY22 budget also includes an increase in debt service cost to cover existing debt from system improvements. To offset these increases, NTMWD lowered the capital budget by reducing capital improvement fund transfers. These actions helped keep the wholesale water rate flat, while maintaining our high level of service.

The estimated cost per 1,000 gallons for the regional wastewater system will increase by 5 percent, and participants in the Upper East Fork Interceptor System will see an additional 6 percent increase to the estimated wholesale cost per 1,000 gallons. For wastewater conveyance and treatment, charges for service are based on annual flows from participating cities into each system.

The Solid Waste wholesale cost per ton for its member cities will not increase in FY22.

For all the regional systems, NTMWD continues to focus on program efficiencies and ways to manage costs including scheduling bond sales for capital projects to closely align with expected construction progress, reducing contract labor expenses, and evaluating organizational structure to maximize approved positions. The District is adding 22 new personnel in FY22, primarily for staffing new operating facilities.

“The approved FY22 budget provides our staff with the ability to meet our responsibilities and continue providing safe, reliable water, wastewater and solid waste services for the millions of North Texans counting on us today and in the future,” Covington added.

More details on FY22 projects, personnel and ways we are managing costs are available online at: NTMWD.com/finances.