For-profit water corporations, federal cuts and climate crisis are ‘supercharging water rate hikes’, study co-author says
US households are paying 62% more for drinking water than they did a decade ago – outpacing inflation, grocery prices and household incomes, according to a new study.
Food & Water Watch, a Washington DC-based non-profit, analyzed 2025 billing data from the 500 largest community water systems in the US, which together serve about 155 million people, or 45% of the country’s population. The analysis compared current rates with data from a similar Food & Water Watch survey conducted in 2015. The study does not include wastewater or storm water charges, which are often billed separately from drinking water service.
In 2025, the average household using 60,000 gallons of water paid $531 for drinking water service, according to the study. However, costs varied widely, with annual bills ranging from $133 at the cheapest system to $1,416 at the most expensive.
So what private equity controls all water? I bet black rock.
We moved to our homestead 5 years ago. We finally had to buy water for the first time last year because Nova Scotia was under a massive drought. Spent $200 to get our well back up to where it was when we moved in. Felt like crap having to pay for water.
I can’t imagine having a water bill.
Shocking how the graph of everything else can go up, and yet the pay rates trail behind at a snails pace
The wealth is gonna trickle down any day. Why else would we be keeping the tax rates so low for mega corps and the Uber wealthy?
Household income increased from $56,025 in 2015 to $87,460 in 2025, a 56% increase
Real household income or nominal?
Because reel household incomes have barely budged since 2020.
56% < 62%
Not where I live, still making about what I did 4 years ago. And jobs getting scarce.
That’s about about a cent a gallon, i.e. negligible cost. A more impactful metric is how this affects the cost of goods and services. Water is largely consumed indirectly.
It’s not a negligible cost increase when the prices are usually a fraction of a cent per gallon.
I pay $0.00335 per gallon, so an increase of $0.01 would mean my rate tripled.
You would still only pay a negligible amount of your income. The issue isn’t residential but industry use becoming more expensive as water is largely consumed indirectly.
My bill would go from $18 to $54, which is not a negligible amount for a lot of people.
A month? Why are you using so much water? Why is your budget this right in US and you are using so much water?
The average daily water usage in the US is 100 gallons a day, or 3000 per billing cycle.
The $18 was for 2900 gallons of water for a two person household, so we actually used less than half of the average.
Ok, with two people sharing that bill that’s more sensible. But I question if that is a relevant cost in you household. You probably spend more than 2000$ a month. You would expect a below average consumption imsince lawns exist.
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https://www.waterloop.org/a-2-trillion-wake-up-call-for-drinking-water/
This has a little bit of something to do with it too, not that I’m saying that corporate ownership of water utilities is a good thing, it’s not, but we’re in all kinds of different trouble.
I’m doubly impacted by this. Moved from one suburb to another suburb and apparently the water down here is much more expensive because of the wastewater costs. I’m in an apartment paying $100/mo for water, and from my googling and other efforts, seems this is normal here. Absolutely sucks.
Thanks corrupt politicians and shady corporations! Surely an enraged populace will keep letting shit like this slide indefinitely, right???
Yeah, it’ll be fine. Don’t worry about doing the right thing.
Part of the problem is that a lot of places pushed for privitizaton because of chronic disinvestment for decades. Politicians kept water costs low by doing the bare minimum to keep the system running and not investing in long term maintenance.
For them, selling to Suez made it easier for the towns to give someone else to blame for rising costs, even if the rising costs were higher than if the local officials showed actual leadership.
From my experience, the water quality is terrible as well. Its why so many people in the US drink bottled water.
Yeah I had rusty water come out sigh, they changed the chemicals they add in water. The local announcement was don’t drink or shower with it for a couple weeks. Buying drinking water is cheaper than running a filtration system here.
That will vary based on your location.
My experience is from the Midwest. I definitely cannot speak for the rest of the country but from what I understand its similar throughout the country.
I boil and filter: Fuck plastic bottles!
Thinking about getting an osmosis system though.
If you do, which I very highly recommend because RO water genuinely tastes amazing (I don’t like tap water anymore, it’s gross and chemical-ly), especially out of stainless steel or glass drinkware, I encourage you to get one with a pump and a 6 gallon tank if you can find a place for the tank to go.
The pump reduces the wasted water to about 1:1 (non-pumped is about 4:1 wastewater to RO), and unless you really don’t use much water, 6 gallons is the way to go, especially if you have multiple people living there, or might do in the future. You might not need it often, but if you ever have company or get an aquarium or anything you’ll be so glad you have the big tank.
The 3 gallon tank I have is adequate for me alone, and would probably be ok for 2 people, but when I do drain it, which I do when making broths, soups, beer, big ice tea batches, etc. or even just filling jugs to take camping, it takes about 4 hours to refill (dont have pump driven, those might go faster, im not sure)
And if you get one, make sure you clean the tank annually. I did not know for half a decade that bleaching regularly, which is pretty easy to do, is important to prevent bacterial growth. Mmm tasty.
