2025 Rate Adjustment Process

Ensuring water for every moment

Water is foundational to everything—our homes, businesses, growing communities, and future. Western Water ensures safe, reliable water flows for every moment, whether it’s your morning coffee or watering your garden. With over 1 million people relying on us, we take this responsibility seriously.

To continue securing and maintaining this essential service, Western Water adopted a four-year rate plan that includes annual rate increases on July 1 of each year from 2025 through 2028.

These gradual adjustments will help us plan for the future and avoid sudden, higher rate increases.

What this means for you

The Western Water Board of Directors adopted the proposed four-year rate plan during the public hearing on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Your Special Rate Notice with more details about the proposed rate changes was mailed to you in early April 2025. You can view your special rate notice online through our Rate Notice Application.

The adopted plan gradually increases customer rates and charges over the next four years, starting with bills issued on or after July 1, 2025. For a typical residential customer using a median amount of water, the estimated monthly combined water and sewer bill will increase as follows:

*These estimates are based on a typical monthly bill for a residential customer using a median amount of water. Your bill may vary depending on your actual usage and services.

Western Water proposed rate increases based on the actual cost of providing service. As a public utility, we can only recover the costs needed to operate our system — no more, no less.

Where your water comes from also impacts rates. Areas like Riverside rely more on imported water, which requires significant infrastructure and energy to transport, while Murrieta benefits from local groundwater supplies that are less expensive to manage.

Visit our FAQ page for answers to common questions.

Why rates are changing

Just as households are experiencing rising costs in groceries, gas, and utilities, delivering water has also become more expensive at every step—from sourcing and treatment to distribution. For example, our imported water supplier, The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is dealing with rising costs due to infrastructure upgrades, regulatory compliance, and inflation-driven increases in materials and labor.

Western Water is committed to keeping rates as low as possible through energy-efficient upgrades, securing grant funding, and streamlining operations. However, the cost of delivering safe, reliable water continues to rise, and these rate adjustments ensure we can maintain and invest in the system for future reliability.

What you’re getting in return

Every dollar of your water rates is invested in:

Securing Water Supplies: Bringing water to our community to ensure a steady and reliable supply.
Operating the System: Storing, moving, and treating water so it’s ready when you need it—this includes everything it takes to hold water for the future and deliver it directly to each customer.
Long-term investment in the system: Investing in our infrastructure by repaying what we’ve built and saving for the replacement of future assets.

Have questions? Connect with us.

Call us at 951.571.7104 or send us an email.