Americans Drowning In Water Bills As Rates Skyrocket Across Country

Americans are drowning in water bills as the cost of one thing they cannot live without continues to climb.

Water rates jumped 62% over the past decade, rising more than twice as fast as grocery prices and outpacing overall inflation, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

“It’s almost a quiet emergency,” Mary Grant, water policy director for Food & Water Watch, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “People don’t talk about their water bill. But everyone needs access to water.”

The consumer group looked at the country’s 500 largest community water providers and found Americans are paying significantly more just to keep the taps running. (RELATED: The Data Center Boom Is Coming For Small-Town Water)

“Making water less affordable forces households to make hard decisions about what essential expenses to cut back on, such as food or education,” the group wrote.

Californians are getting hit particularly hard, with more than half of the country’s most expensive water providers located in the Golden State, the report shows.

San Jose Water Company topped the list, with rates more than twice the national average, the report found. Getting water to California homes can itself be expensive, with supplies sometimes traveling hundreds of miles before reaching the tap, while some utilities are turning to options like recycled water and desalination, according to the Chronicle.

“We’re working on several fronts to manage increasing costs, with customer affordability top of mind for our team as we make decisions on investments and operating costs for one of the state’s most advanced water utility systems,” San Jose Water told the Chronicle.

The squeeze stretches beyond California, with some of the country’s most expensive providers located in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Illinois and Massachusetts, the analysis found.

Water costs can look dramatically different depending on where Americans live. Some national estimates put average water-only bills at roughly $35 to $40 a month in lower-cost states such as Wyoming, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa, while Maryland averages closer to $50 a month.

But even within individual states like Maryland, prices vary enormously: a typical household using 4,000 gallons a month pays about $75 in Annapolis and $84 in Frederick, compared with more than $276 for water and sewer service in the privately operated Pinto-Bel Air system in Western Maryland, according to an analysis of municipal and regulatory records published by The Banner.

In Western Maryland, residents have rationed showers and hauled buckets from a creek while facing hundreds of dollars in water bills.

Keeping the taps running is getting more expensive too. Water providers are dealing with aging pipes, pollution and costly repairs, while the Environmental Protection Agency estimates drinking water systems will need hundreds of billions of dollars in improvements over the coming decades.

America’s artificial intelligence boom could add another strain. Data centers can consume large amounts of water to cool their computers, and their growth could require billions of dollars in new water infrastructure, potentially leaving local customers with part of the bill, Food & Water Watch warned.

Data center developers are looking for ways to use less local water as communities grapple with the industry’s growing demand for resources. One Utah developer plans to capture water produced while burning natural gas and reuse it at a massive data center campus.(RELATED: The Issue Making Politicians Sweat As November Midterms Loom)

States are also moving to keep the costs of the data center boom from spilling onto residents. California has moved to shield utility customers from some costs tied to new facilities.

Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order in August requiring data center developers to pay the full cost of new electricity infrastructure needed for their projects and meet strict water conservation requirements. Developers must also report their water consumption and maximum daily demand to the state.

Food & Water Watch argues Washington should spend more on upgrading the country’s water systems rather than leaving utilities to pass those costs onto households, according to the report.

Rising water bills are adding to the strain on household budgets already squeezed by higher grocery prices, electricity costs and housing expenses as the wars in Iran and Ukraine continue to disrupt global energy and commodity supply chains.