User Charge Program
The MWRD's User Charge Program was established to administer a fair and orderly system to recover its operations, maintenance, and replacement costs incurred in the treatment and disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, and other wastes generated by facilities in its service area proportional to each individual's use of the collection system and treatment facilities. The MWRD's Pretreatment and Cost Recovery (PTCR) group is responsible for administering the program and reviewing monitoring data collected by Users subject to the User Charge Ordinance and by its own staff.
New or established businesses in the MWRD's service area who suspect they may be a User should contact the PTCR group and submit a Facility Classification Questionnaire so they can be evaluated for any user charges the MWRD may need to recover.
The MWRD maintains a list of Large Commercial-Industrial and Tax-Exempt Users available for download.
User Charge Ordinance (effective January 1, 2023)
User Charge Ordinance (effective January 1, 2024)
Cook Country Treasure's Office Property Tax Overview
Calculations and Evaluations of the User Charge Rates
The 2023 User Charge Annual Certified Statement (RD-925) is due Tuesday February 20, 2024.
Below are the User Charge Rates and OM&R Factor for the past five years. Rates are reviewed and approved by the Board of Commissioners annually as part of Appendix E of the User Charge Ordinance.
| Year |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume (per million gallons) |
$273.88 |
$278.81 |
$277.48 |
$282.47 |
$287.56 |
| 5-day Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) (per thousand pounds) |
$209.94 |
$202.93 |
$181.07 |
$184.33 |
$187.65 |
| Total Suspended Solids (SS) (per thousand pounds) |
$124.16 |
$117.81 |
$123.05 |
$124.16 |
$125.28 |
| Operations, Maintenance & Replacement (OM&R) Factor |
0.319 |
0.354 |
0.341 |
0.401 |
0.306 |
*The 2024 User Charge Rates have been submitted for consideration to the Board of Commissioners' at their November 2, 2023, meeting with approval after a public review period.
Section 2 of the User Charge Ordinance
There are two classifications of User: Large Commercial-Industrial and Tax-Exempt. Since the MWRD's cost recovery system is based on ad-valorem property taxes, Users are those who discharge non-domestic wastewater, excessive amounts of wastewater, or do not pay property taxes sufficiently to cover their treatment costs. The definition of each classification from the User Charge Ordinance details specifically how the MWRD determines whether or not a facility should be classified as a User.
A Large Commercial-Industrial User is any nongovernmental User engaged in commercial or industrial activities which discharges any wastes exceeding any of the following:
- a flow of 25,000 gallons per day;
- a BOD loading of 25 pounds per day;
- or a suspended solids loading of 35 pounds per day,
or is designated as a Significant Industrial User.
A Tax-Exempt User is a User, excluding local government users, which:
-
Pays no ad valorem taxes, or
-
Pays ad valorem taxes on some but not all Facility parcels that do not offset the User’s Gross User Charges in its entirety.