Water Blog

Budgets help us keep our money in check, but did you know that as a resident of Greeley, the city helps you keep your water bill in check?  Every month, the city ratepayers who stay within their allotted budget pay the lowest price per 1,000 gallons. The rates are tiered, but they are personalized to your household, so extra usage means a steeper rate in the higher tiers.

Water budgets are based on household size, automatically defaulting to three household members and lot size. As an example, if your water budget is set for a household of three, and each uses 45 gallons per day, your household could easily go over budget with just one visitor. But you can change that anytime. If family come visiting for a month next September, you can adjust your water budget on the city webpage. If the kid comes home from college, or you take in extra family members while they build a house, residents can increase their water budgets with the city to avoid the penalties of going over.

“If you have more or less, you need to tell us, especially when you have more people in the house, because that could cause you to go over in the winter,” said Ruth Quade, water conservation manager for the city of Greeley. While going over a water budget just slightly does not equate to that much of a financial penalty (maybe $1 per 1,000 gallons), the city would prefer to save water rather than use it.

“For the city as a whole, the more everyone conserves the better off they’ll be,” Quade said. “These budgets are generous. If you’re going over your budget, you have an issue.”

The most common reason for going over your water budget means you have a leak somewhere. The new water meters the city is installing throughout the year will help residents see their water usage in real time, helping residents catch leaks in a fraction of the time as in the past..

The beauty of the city of Greeley’s budget is that it gives residents what they need—when they need it, accounting for weather in the summer months, when water usage rises. But life changes can change water use, too, and the more a household uses, the better chance for going over its water budget. 

Making changes to your budget is easy. Just go to the city of Greeley’s My Water Budget and scroll down the page to the “Update My Information” tab.