Could You Defend Your Connection Charges? A Case Study

The purpose of this paper is present the analysis used to recommend an up-to-date, user-friendly, defensible and equitable water and wastewater connection fee calculation methodology for Polk County Utilities (PCU) for all non-residential developments and uses. PCU required the calculation methodology to be logical and technically defensible. In choosing the calculation methodology, a balance was struck among the goals of: (1) using readily available and locally appropriate data to project demand; (2) matching actual demand of a project to the connection charge paid; and (3) facilitating administrative implementation of the connection charge.The analysis included reviewing the current methodology, looking at equivalent meter size, considering fixture unit values and/or any combination of the above. As a check, four typical installations were reviewed to determine the effect of implementing a new methodology on the connection charge.