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What Utility Fees Pay For
UTILITY RATES
Utility rates are changing effective July 15, 2024. View the new rates at the following links:
What do your utility fees pay for?
- Safe drinking water on demand. This means the removal of viruses and bacteria commonly found in untreated water that cause Typhoid Fever, Cholera, Giardia, Dysentery, E. coli, Hepatitis A, and Salmonella.
- Safe treatment of wastewater. The removal of waste and pollutants from wastewater helps protect our environment and prevent people and animals from getting sick.
- Maintenance of water, sewer, and storm water infrastructure. This includes maintenance of our water storage tanks, pump stations, meters, wells, treatment and filtration plants, underground pipes, catch basins, and more.
- Living-wage jobs for the crews that maintain the system. We have employees on call 24/7 to respond to water and sewer emergencies such as a broken water main, frozen water meters, or a mechanical failure in the system. Our skilled staff maintains all required certifications to keep our systems running.
- Building infrastructure to meet growing demands. Using updated master plans to assess our needs, we identify the infrastructure that needs to be built to meet the long-term needs of residents and commercial and industrial businesses.
- Compliance with regulatory standards. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Oregon Health Authority (OHA) issue drinking water and wastewater treatment standards to protect the health of humans and the environment. Over the years, higher standards continue to be put in place which require modifications to our system to meet those new rules.
Did you know? According to the EPA, the average American uses around 82 gallons of water per day. That means a family of four would use around 10,000 gallons in a 30-day period. One gallon of bottled water from a store costs about $1.22. If you had to buy your water from a store, you would pay around $100 a day per person.
Public Safety Fee: For information about the Public Safety Fee, visit www.sthelensoregon.gov/utilities and look under Supporting Documents at the bottom of the page.
