Food & Water Watch analyzed billing data from 500 of the largest water systems, finding costs grew 1.6 times faster than overall inflation
By Cris Tolomia·October 7, 2026
Food & Water Watch found that typical household drinking water bills rose 62% between 2015 and 2025, outpacing overall inflation, grocery prices, and median household income growth, according to a report released Tuesday.
The advocacy group’s analysis drew on billing data from the 500 largest community water systems in the U.S., a set of utilities that collectively provide drinking water to around 155 million people — nearly half the national population. Over the same ten years, overall consumer prices climbed 39% and grocery prices 30%, each well below the pace of water bill growth, the report found.
The average system charged a typical household $531 a year in 2025, based on annual consumption of 60,000 gallons, but costs varied widely across the country. A public system in Hempstead, New York charged $133, while a corporate system in San Jose, California charged $1,416. West Virginia had the highest statewide average at $1,383, while Idaho had the lowest at $286.
Household water costs also eclipsed earnings, outstripping the national median household income by 19 percentage points over the decade, the report found. In Louisiana, Maryland, and West Virginia, bills grew roughly twice as fast as state median household incomes. In New Hampshire, water bills rose nearly five times faster than incomes — the state also recorded the steepest overall increase, at 177%, followed by Oregon at 114% and West Virginia at 95%.
The ownership gap was stark: for-profit utilities collected an average of $823 annually from a typical household, versus $494 at publicly owned systems — a difference of $329, or about two-thirds more. Despite representing only 11% of the 500 systems in the dataset, private utilities claimed 44 of every 100 spots among the 25 priciest. All 25 of the least expensive systems were publicly owned.
“A water affordability crisis is rapidly expanding throughout America,” Mary Grant, Food & Water Watch’s water policy director and a co-author of the report, said in a statement. “Rampant corporate control of our water systems and federal disinvestment in aging infrastructure are driving up bills, forcing households to pick up the tab.”
In 93% of the systems examined, water bills surpassed the report’s affordability benchmark, which defines costs as unaffordable when they exceed 1.5% of income for households in the bottom income quintile. West Virginia and Puerto Rico faced the steepest burdens. Low-income households in West Virginia spent roughly 11% of their income on water, while those in Puerto Rico spent about 20%, according to the report.
The report attributed rising costs to aging infrastructure, reduced federal funding, chemical contamination remediation, and climate-related expenses. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided water funding through fiscal year 2026, but that support has since ended, the report noted.
https://qz.com/us-drinking-water-bills-rose-62-percent-decade-100726
