Clayton County Water Authority - Care.Connect.Conserve
By Alanna Kinnebrew
This is one in a series of blog posts that describe customer assistance programs (CAPs) for customers who are experiencing financial hardships at specific Georgia utilities. CAPs take different forms, but they provide help to customers who can’t afford their water/wastewater bills, a situation that has worsened with the economic downturn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
About Clayton County Water Authority
Clayton County is one of Georgia’s smallest counties in terms of land size with an area of only 143 square miles, but is one of the most densely populated as the county is made up of six incorporated cities: Forest Park, a portion of College Park, Jonesboro, Lake City, Lovejoy, Morrow and Riverdale, and the City of Jonesboro. As of April 30, 2019, the Clayton County Water Authority (CCWA) served 82,997 water customers, 67,339 sewer customers, and 80,650 stormwater customers. CCWA has a water production capacity of 42 million gallons per day (MGD), a water reclamation capacity of 38.4 MGD, and a six-city stormwater system that has 500 miles of piping. With service to so many customers, what is the average cost of service for a CCWA customer?
As required by the Metro North Georgia Water Planning District (The District), CCWA has an increasing block rate structure. For a residential customer who consumes about 4,500 gallons of water per month, the average monthly bill would be about $25.68 for water service and about $27.44 for sewer service which totals to $53.12, in addition to a $3.75 monthly stormwater fee. These values are based on the water, wastewater, and stormwater rates as of September 2020.
CCWA Care.Connect.Conserve Program
CCWA offers various assistance programs to its low-income customers or customers experiencing a temporary hardship.
The programs are currently being funded through cell tower lease revenue and through funds received by the Authority’s partnership with Gas South. Funds being generated through both revenue streams more than cover the yearly costs associated with running the programs, however, they also represent a discrete pot of money that is not associated with any group of water customers and is therefore particularly appropriate for funding CAPs.
Below you will find additional details regarding each of CCWA’s affordability programs. For more information or to apply for assistance, customers are encouraged to contact CCWA for more details here.
Hardship Assistance Program
This program has been in effect at CCWA since 2012. A qualified residential customer can receive a maximum of $200 in assistance during a 12-month rolling period. The assistance is applied by CCWA as a credit to the customer’s account and the program is administered by the Clayton County Community Services Authority, Inc. (CCCSA), as well as by the Salvation Army. This hardship program is designed for customers going through a period of temporary financial distress, such as job loss or high medical expenses. The Authority does not currently provide a continual discount program to chronically low-income customers.
Senior Citizen Discount Program
CCWA’s Senior Citizen Discount Program provides qualified seniors with up to a $5 discount on their monthly bill ($2.50 off water and $2.50 off wastewater). Eligibility for the program is also administered by Clayton County Community Services Authority, Inc. and is based on the following requirements:
Customer must be 65 or older,
Have a household income of $25,000 or less, and
Must show proof of residency, age and income.
Veteran Discount Program
CCWA recently approved a program similar to the senior discount for veterans in the fall of 2019, in fact it was rolled out on Veteran’s day! The program mimics the Senior Citizen Discount Program, providing veterans with up to a $5 discount on their bill ($2.50 off water and $2.50 off wastewater). To be eligible for this program, a customer:
Must be a veteran,
Have a household income of $25,000 or less, and
Must show proof of residency and income.
Delayed Billing Program
A customer can request that CCWA set the monthly bill to be due on the last working day of the month. Rendering the bill on this date allows the customer’s bill to coincide with pension and/or social security checks. All due dates and cutoff dates are then computed from this special billing date. To qualify for this program a customer must be sixty-two (62) years of age or older.
Budget Billing Program
With budget billing the customer pays the same amount each month for twelve months, regardless of the actual amount of water used per month. Instead of the monthly calculated bill being based on the meter reading in a given month, the bill is based on the average of the customer’s water use from the previous 12 rolling months. As the name suggests, this type of billing evens out the customer’s financial responsibility over the course of a year, making the bill predictable for the customer’s budgeting purposes.
Water Efficiency Programs
Leak Forgiveness Program
If a residential customer has experienced a leak, CCWA will review the account and may provide a credit adjustment, provided the leak has been repaired by the customer. The customer is required to bring CCWA a receipt for the supplies and/or the services purchased to fix the leak. Once the customer’s billing shows that usage has gone back down, CCWA will issue an adjustment to the account. Customers can receive two adjustments per rolling twelve-month period, barring extenuating circumstances.
Toilet Rebate Program
CCWA is one of many utilities that participates in the regional Residential Toilet Rebate Program administered by the District. This incentive program encourages customers to replace older, inefficient toilets and install new ultra-low-flush toilets (ULFT) or high efficiency toilets (HET). To read more about this program and its eligibility criteria, please see the previous blog post about the Henry County Water Authority Charitable Assistance Program where additional details are provided.
As utilities grapple with whether to go forward with planned rate increases during this unprecedented year, having these types of assistance programs in place is proving to be a deciding factor.
This is part of a blog post series funded by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA).
Disclaimer: The opinions of the writers should not be considered legal advice or endorsement by GEFA.