Water Rates Explained

Your water rate reflects the cost of collecting, transporting, purifying, storing, testing and delivering safe water from the water source lakes to your tap.

Why do rates go up?

Allen’s water and wastewater services are purchased from the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD). Each year, the City of Allen and NTMWD perform cost projections and rate studies to determine the cost of meeting our customers' water and wastewater needs. Rates may rise due to:

  • Population growth requiring new water sources, storage tanks, and  delivery lines
  • Population growth requiring new wastewater treatment capacity
  • Repair or replacement of aging water and sewer infrastructure 
  • Meeting new water quality regulations to safeguard public health
  • Installation of new backup electric power supply to assure water production and wastewater treatment capability when electric supplies are constrained or unavailable
  • Coping with the recent inflation-driven rise in construction costs for building and maintaining water and wastewater lines and treatment plants

Approximately 58% of Allen’s Water Sewer Fund budget is paid to the NTMWD to pay for their treatment of our water and wastewater. The remaining 42% of the budget is what it takes to deliver water to each home and business, as well as transport the sewage to NTMWD. The City maintains community-owned infrastructure that includes 502 miles of water lines, 370 miles of sewer lines, 5,351 fire hydrants, 6,645 sewer manholes and 14,674 water valves.

What do rates cover?

  • Raw water collection, transport, treatment, and delivery to cities/customers
  • Development of new raw water sources to stay ahead of rapidly growing water demand
  • Development of new wastewater treatment capacity 
  • Maintenance of tanks, towers, pumps, pipes, and other equipment
  • Testing to assure water quality is maintained
  • Building new projects while replacing aging infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing population

Recent and upcoming projects

  • 2024-25: Replacement of clay tile sewer main along Mustang Creek beginning near Park Place at Allen Heights and running along the creek for 8,000 feet to the south-$9.85 million
  • 2024-25: Installation of new water lines in the Allenwood and Timbercreek Subdivisions- $6.6 million
  • 2022-23: Completing the Multiyear Windridge Subdivision Water and Sewer Line Replacements - $11.6 million
  • 2022-24: Build Sloan Creek Gravity Sewer Line and New Sewer Lift Station - $13 million
  • 2023-24: Renewing the original half of the Stacy Road water pump station - $4.8 million
  • 2023: Repainted the Rowlett elevated water storage tank - $1.5 million
  • 2021: Completed Multiyear Hillside Subdivision Water and Sewer Line Replacements - $8.8 million
  • 2020: Repainted the Bethany Road elevated water tank - $1 million

What is Allen doing to control rising rates?

Even with incremental rate increases, most Allen customers continue to pay a lower rate than neighbors in every NTMWD member city, including Frisco, McKinney, Plano and Richardson. Allen’s rate is also significantly lower than the state average, thanks to efforts by Allen City Council and NTMWD, including:

  • 2024: Installing “Residual Control Systems” on two elevated water storage tanks to keep disinfectant levels optimized and reduce the need for the flushing of water lines- $700,000.  This initiative will drastically reduce water line flushing previously done to assure residual disinfectant levels are maintained.  
  • 2022-23: Implementing "Smart Water Meters" and "Advanced Meter Infrastructure" (AMI) to automate meter reading, make 720 meter readings per month available for residents to analyze their water usage, add a continuous leak detection capability, and offer a new self-service portal for customers to review water use and set up usage alerts if desired.
  • 2022 and 2024: Conduct of rate studies to ensure water and sewer rate increases were the smallest amount possible
  • 2019: Allen City Council eliminated the highest tier of water rates, which charged residential customers a higher fee when use surpassed 75,001 gallons per month.
  • 2017: Allen City Council saved customers $15.75 million over the next ten years by raising infrastructure impact fees for new developments and changing the way infrastructure projects were financed.

To learn more about NTMWD and the rising cost of water/wastewater services, visit NTMWD.com.