Cities across the Valley are raising water rates, asking consumers to pay more
Two children fill a cup with water in the kitchen sink. Residents across the Valley are seeing higher water rates as charging more for what comes out of the tap is becoming the norm Valley cities. (Courtesy city of Phoenix)
Each shower or flush is beginning to mean a little bit more money down the drain for all Valley residents.
Residents across the region are seeing higher water rates as charging more for what comes out of the tap is becoming the norm for Valley cities.
Valley water officials point to more expensive water from their sources — mainly the Salt River Project and the Central Arizona Project — as well as to inflation hitting things like chemicals used to treat water.
Water revenue also helps to pay for infrastructure to deliver and treat water now and in the future.
“We’re talking about water security. Water security is vital,” Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega said ahead of his city council voting to raise rates in June.
Phoenix Water Services Director Troy Hayes told city council this summer the national high inflation rates Phoenix saw in 2022 extended beyond the grocery store shelves to impact the costs to buy and treat water.
“This issue is not isolated to Phoenix as other water and wastewater utilities across the Valley and the nation have experienced these pressures and are causing similar revenue changes,” Hayes said.
Bluefield Research reports between 2012 and 2021, water rates in 50 metropolitan areas across the U.S. increased on average 4.2% per year.
The Valley also does not have it as bad as it could be. The city of Phoenix studied water rates across the nation and found Phoenix had the sixth-lowest water rates out of the top 20 most populous U.S. cities. That was before Phoenix’s rate increase in October, which would drop it to around eighth on the list.
It’s common for cities to routinely have water rate increases of a few percent to account for rising costs, but several had larger rate increases this year or in recent years with more to vote on rate increases by the end of the month.
Water prices are typically split into at least a couple categories, including a base monthly price based on the size of a home’s water meter and a cost by volume used, often escalating in price the more water a household uses. This means the same rate increase won’t be felt equally by all households in a city, but cities will lay out how much a change will affect the average water user.
Construction worker Francisco Ynglliu uses a hose to cool off at a building site Monday, July 18, 2005, in Phoenix. (The Associated Press/Tom Hood)
Increases this year
Cities that increased water rates this year include Peoria, which had a more routine 2.5% increase on Jan. 1 and then a larger 9.1% increase on July 1. In June, Scottsdale City Council voted for a 5.8% increase to water rates effective Nov. 1 and plan another 4.2% hike in July 2024.
Scottsdale Councilmember Barry Graham, who voted against the increase, said it was not the time to be raising residents’ costs. He noted increased costs of living in the city as well as council raising property taxes in the same meeting and planning to ask voters to raise sales taxes next year.
Graham said water rate increases may not technically be a tax, but they feel like one.
“You don’t get to choose who your water company is from your house. That’s your water company,” Graham said. “… And you have to have water. So, it’s not like it’s like, ‘Well, if you don’t like it just go to the next company.’”
Phoenix also approved multiple rate hikes in June. A 6.5% increase for the average user went into effect Oct. 1 with another 6.5% increase going into effect five months later in March 2024. A 13% hike is planned for March 2025.
Glendale also had a smaller increase this year, about 3.8% for the average user.
When to raise prices
Before the June vote, Phoenix Councilmember Betty Guardado said the larger increases became necessary because of failure of past city councils to keep up with costs. She noted from 2013 to 2018, the city averaged a 0.83% annual increase in meter rates, including no increase in four of those years.
“It’s sad that today’s vote is really the result of past leadership not addressing water rate increases in a responsible way,” Guardado said.
Councilmember Kesha Hodge Washington agreed but said the important thing was not to continue to kick the can down the road.
“As Councilwoman Guardado said, we are now dealing with the consequences of prior leadership not taking the necessary steps,” Hodge Washington said. “And while we can sit and cast stones, I think the more prudent response is to make sure that we do not sustain the same results.”
Phoenix City Manager Jeff Barton replied that he intends to make a practice of reviewing the city’s water and wastewater rates each year even if it is determined an increase is not necessary.
Guardado and Hodge Washington each mentioned concern for many residents to be able to handle the large increases rather than smaller increases over time. However, they both also applauded a city program to address that issue – Project Assist. City staff committed to increasing funds for the program from $700,000 to $1 million and raising the income eligibility from 150% of the federal poverty level to 200%.
Several other Valley cities, including Scottsdale, also have programs to help low-income residents with water bills.
One Valley town has had a similar realization to take the bad news of rate increase in small bites rather than big chunks. Gilbert went eight years without a water rate increase until in 2018, it increased prices by 11.9%. Then in 2022, they skyrocketed further, up another 29.6%. Now, city leadership has committed to reviewing water rates every two years.
Goodyear spokesperson Jordan Byrd said that city has avoided more drastic jumps in water rates because it has stuck to a philosophy of smaller increases.
“Goodyear began increasing its rates sooner than some other cities,” Byrd stated in a email to the Daily Independent. “Goodyear had its largest (percentage) increases in 2016 and that plan went through 2020. Goodyear City Council has stated that they prefer regular annual adjustments that are smaller rather than holding rates flat and then falling behind having to increase rates dramatically. All of the city’s rate models are based on this smoothing philosophy and it has worked well.”
Upcoming votes
Chandler City Council voted to approve a 2.5% increase on Monday night. The city has a council-consensus goal of recovering 100% of its costs of service for water and wastewater, on five-year plans, reports Independent Newsmedia’s Jason W. Brooks.
Mesa has a vote scheduled for Monday, Nov. 27, on an increase that would be 3% for the average water user, with the increase growing to 4% beyond 15,000 gallons per month and jumping to 7.5% beyond 30,000 gallons per month. The average Arizona household uses just over 9,000 gallons of water per month, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
Tempe will vote on Thursday, Nov. 30, on a proposed 8.6% increase to water rates.
Other changes
Goodyear administers its water rate increases in a five-year plan. It had a 5% increase to water rates in 2022 and will have increases slightly smaller than 5% each year through 2025. City staff is planning now for the next five-year period, 2026-30, Byrd said.
Surprise also operates under a five-year plan. The current plan began in 2019 with a 22% increase, then a 13% increase in 2020. Each year after that was an increase just over 4% through this year.
Several municipalities in the Valley are serviced by EPCOR. Anthem had some of the highest rates until EPCOR implemented a three-year rate change phase-in during 2020. Anthem was the big winner, seeing its average monthly rate decrease from $70.80 to $51.76 over three years, a 26.9% decline. Paradise Valley saw the biggest hike, increasing 27.1% from a $55.65 average monthly bill to $70.25.
The Sun Cities are serviced by EPCOR and saw minor changes in opposite directions under the three-year rate changes. Sun City residents saw a 4.1% increase to their monthly bill, from $26.56 to $27.64. Sun City West residents had a decrease of 4.6%, from $35.20 to $33.57.
Why the increases?
Phoenix staff cited to council that their raw water rates from SRP and CAP have increased 35% during the past five years. The cost for chemicals to treat the water has increased 136% in that time, and the staffing and electric costs associated has increased 38% and 12%, respectively.
Some local water officials also pointed to unfunded mandates – county, state or federal governments instituting costly requirements on cities without helping to pay for them – as a reason costs have risen for cities and utilities.
The role of conservation
More people moving into the Valley means more demand for a lot of things, but not necessarily water. Phoenix Water Resources Management Adviser Cynthia Campbell told Independent Newsmedia this summer that despite having nearly have a million more people than it did 20 years ago, Phoenix uses less water in total by being more efficient.
There is still room for improvement though. Campbell noted the average Tucson resident uses about 80 gallons of water per day compared with 98-99 gallons per day for the average Phoenix resident.
Research by the Arizona group Water – Use It Wisely shows on average an Arizona residential water user uses 120 gallons per day, 65 of which are used outdoors. Many water officials in the Valley say residents tend to overwater their plants, leading not only to a waste of water but potentially harming the plant.
Hayes, Phoenix’s Water Services Director, noted to council that after an extensive public input process, most residents were supportive of the rate increases. There was also a sentiment that maybe the added cost would inspire residents to be more efficient.
“Many people think that Phoenix needs to have higher water rates to motivate water conservation, but there were concerns about being able to afford these higher rates for residents that may be living on fixed incomes,” Hayes said.
With the rate increases, Phoenix also rolled out several water conservation incentive programs, such as rebates to install low-flow toilets or irrigation controllers and a commercial turf program to encourage artificial turf instead of grass in some areas.
We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Mark Carlisle can be reached at mcarlisle@iniusa.org.
Mark Carlisle joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, covering Glendale. He has since moved to the Daily Independent team, primarily covering the city of Phoenix along with other topics affecting the Valley at-large.
Community: Mark enjoys taking his young son to BabyTime at the Phoenix Public Library, to the OdySea Aquarium and to various sporting events around the Valley.
Education: Chapman University with a BA in English Journalism and one in Screenwriting.
Random Fact: Mark worked at a tuxedo shop in college. Just don’t ask him to tie a bowtie.
Hobbies: Spending time with his wife, son and dog, watching sports and TV shows, listening to audiobooks and occasionally writing fiction or designing a board game.
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