Starting on March 15th 2021, the City of Soap Lake will be adding General Facility Charges (GFCs) for new sewer and water connections. A GFC is a charge to purchase capacity in and fund improvements to the City water and/or sanitary sewer system to address the added demand placed upon the system(s). This shares the cost of new facilities more fairly between long time residences and new developments. This does not affect existing residences and businesses already connected to sewer and water. The rates for a new water connection will include a $500 Administrative Fee and a $1000 GFC, and a new Sewer connection will include a $500 Administrative Fee and a $1000 GFC. Parts and materials provided by the City (meters, pipes, fittings) will be charge at cost + 10%.
Current market price for water connection parts with 1” meter = $2,332.50*
Current market price for sewer connection parts = $751.74*
*Contact City Hall to verify current material costs.
To learn more about GFC’s and how they are calculated you can review the study provided by Gray and Osborne.
To help understand a GFC, imagine you have purchased a coffee machine for your office. To help pay for the coffee, maintenance, and eventual upgrade of the machine, you decide to let a couple co-workers use the machine too for a small fee. Though beneficial too all, your co-workers are getting a better deal since they didn’t have to help pay for the coffee machine. This is like not having a GFC.
Realizing this, you also ask your co-workers to buy a share of the coffee machine by paying a part of its original cost in order to use it. Instead of pocketing those one time joining payments, you put it towards purchasing upgrades, allowing for more co-workers to join in the office coffee community. This is like having a GFC.
This simplified story only helps explain what a GFC is, while the reality is much more complex with thousands of people involved who move in and out of town, millions of dollars and market values to consider, and competition between other cities for businesses and residents playing a part too.