Water utility proposes increases to water and wastewater rates

Water utility proposes increases to water and wastewater rates

Published on August 18, 2026

The Water Utility's balanced Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 proposed budget is $732,727,973, which is 8.7%, or $58,556,828 more than the FY2026 budget. This budget increase translates to a 3.6% system rate increase for water and a 2.85% system rate increase for wastewater.

The recommended rate increases impact both the volume and fixed monthly charges for the various customer classes for water and wastewater. Residential volume rates would see increases to only Tiers 3 and 4, where irrigation usage predominates. To maintain affordability, no change is proposed to the residential volume rate for Tiers 1 and 2, where water is used for domestic purposes such as cleaning and cooking.

The bottom line:

The Utility's cost of doing business is going up. The budget increase is driven primarily by increases in:

• debt service payments and pay-go cash funding for infrastructure investment;
• contractual services for raw water purchases and wastewater treatment provided by partner agencies;
• transfers to other City funds for street rental, payment-in-lieu of taxes (PILOT) and other support services; and
• pay for performance, group health insurance, supplies, and repair and maintenance costs.

By the numbers:

The impact on individual residential customers will vary based on their monthly water use. The average residential customer's monthly bill would increase by $1.32. The average residential customer uses 9.45 CCF (7,069 gallons) of water and discharges 5.95 CCF (4,450 gallons) of wastewater per month.

The recommended increases to residential rates for Tiers 3 and 4 are intended to send a stronger conservation pricing signal on irrigation usage. Even with this increase, Fort Worth's differential between the lowest and highest residential tiers is among the lowest in the state when compared to benchmarked cities.

Go deeper:

Read the detailed report about the proposed budget increases and review the specific proposed rate changes for all customer classes.

What's next:

Customers can submit written comments about the proposed rates by noon on Monday, Aug. 24. Action on the recommended rates may occur as soon as the Aug. 25 City Council meeting. The rate changes would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2027.

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