Water Rates Process 

To view the current rates and fees, visit the District's Water Rates page.

2024 Water Rates Process

The District conducted five financial workshops to review the midcycle budget and water rates on May 23, May 30, July 18, August 22, and September 26, 2024. The workshops engaged with District customers and ratepayers to ensure transparency and understanding of the budget and rate-setting process. Topics included the District’s financial status, expenditure forecasts, and water rate-setting matters such as rate structures, allocation between fixed service charges and variable consumption charges, and debt capacity. At the conclusion of the workshops, the Board directed staff to prepare a formal rate increase proposal. At the December 12, 2024 Board meeting, staff presented the formal rate increase proposal and the Board approved issuance of a formal rate increase notice of an increase of 4% to both the service and commodity charges, per year for two years, to all customers. At the February 13th, 2025 meeting the Board approved the rate increase effective March 1, 2025. 

Community Meetings

Two meetings were held on January 28th, 2025 and January 30th, 2025, providing a brief presentation followed by a question and answer session. The content of the two presentations was the same. The January 30th meeting was recorded and is available to view. Watch the recording of the January 30th public meeting here. You may also view the presentation for the community meetings.

Public Hearing

February 13, 2025: A public hearing on the proposed increases to ACWD's water rates and charges was held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, February 13, 2025. At this meeting, the Board discussed the revisions to the District’s Rate and Fee Schedule regarding water-related rates and charges, including private fire service rates, facilities connection charges, and miscellaneous fees and charges. At the conclusion of the public hearing, the Board approved a rate increase of 4% to both the commodity and service charges each year for two years, effective March 1st, 2025 and 2026. 

Board Meetings

December 12, 2024: At this Board meeting, District presented the proposed charges and water rates based on the discussions that occurred over the series of financial workshops as described in the section below. The Board set February 13, 2025 for a public hearing and authorized staff to provide formal notice to the community of the proposed rate increases. View the agenda and presentation. 

Protesting the Water Rate Proposal

The protest period closed at the conclusion of the Public Hearing on February 13th, 2025.

Financial Workshops

May 23, 2024: At this workshop, District staff presented the Midcycle Updates to Fiscal Year 2023/24 and Fiscal Year 2024/25 Budget to the Board. The Board reviewed forecast revenue, operating expenses, capital expenditures, staffing levels and labor-related costs, and multi-year financial projections. View the presentation from the May 23, 2024 workshop.

May 30, 2024: At this second budget workshop, the Board reviewed budget assumptions, operating costs, revenues, various financial planning scenarios, and the Capital Improvement Program. Staff presented a summary of the draft budget and financial metrics, consistent with the feedback provided at the May 23, 2024 budget workshop. View the presentation from the May 30, 2024 workshop.

July 18, 2024: This workshop focused on the current and projected financial status of the District, review of District financial trends and a rate survey, review of financial planning scenarios including deferral of capital projects, operational adjustments to minimize purchase of imported water supplies, and the amount of bonds issued to fund the capital program, and review of key issues pertaining to rate structures including evaluation of tiered rates for single-family residential customers. View the presentation from the July 18, 2024 workshop.

August 22, 2024: This workshop focused on the evaluation of creating multiple customer classes and the resulting water rate impacts, discussion of the revenue recovery allocation between fixed service charges and variable consumption charges, water shortage emergency stage rates that could be charged during a water shortage emergency, such as a drought, and the use of the property tax roll for billing the service charge.  View the presentation from the August 22, 2024 workshop.

September 26, 2024: This workshop focused on the consideration of how much the District should borrow to fund the capital program (rather than cash-fund) and the corresponding impact on water rate increases, evaluation of interim financing methods that may be appropriate in the future to help manage cash flow needs for the capital program, evaluation of creating multiple customer classes and the resulting water rate impacts, and evaluation of tiered water rates for single-family residential customers. View the presentation from the September 26, 2024 workshop. 

For information on ACWD's rate history, visit the Previous Water Rates Processes page. 

Additional Documents

Determining Rates & Charges

Water rates cover the cost of providing a reliable supply of high-quality drinking water to the communities of Fremont, Newark and Union City. As a public agency, ACWD cannot take in funds that exceed the costs of providing its service. The District periodically conducts an analysis to ensure water rates accurately reflect the cost of water service. The District also uses outside expert consultants to ensure that its rates are properly determined. Following a series of public workshops, the District notifies customers and the public about any proposed rate adjustments through various means:

  • A formal notice of any proposed rate adjustments is mailed to all addresses within the District’s service boundaries. The formal notice contains the details of a public hearing where the revisions are proposed to be adopted by the Board after a formal 45 day public input period. View the most recently issued notice of rate adjustments that was distributed in December 2022. 
  • Postings to the District’s website and social media sites
  • Email notifications to customers who have subscribed to receive board meeting notices
  • Press Releases
  • Printed advertisements in local newspapers.

The District continuously looks for and implements ways to be efficient and control costs. These include managing the District's diverse water supplies to maximize use of lowest-cost water, installing Advanced Metering Infrastructure to improve metering accuracy and provide long-term cost reductions and operational savings, increasing energy efficiency to reduce power costs, lowering costs related to our vehicle fleet by transitioning to a leasing program, and partnering with other agencies to execute joint projects to reduce costs and community impacts. Cost controls have helped keep the District’s water rates consistently in the lower half of 30 Bay Area water agencies. You can view a chart that illustrates ACWD’s current median water bill in comparison to other Bay Area water agencies.

The District also continuously evaluates new revenue sources such as grant funds, and has secured about $24 million in grant funds and reimbursements, primarily for mandated fishery projects in Alameda Creek.

Contact Information

If you should have any questions or comments about ACWD's rates and charges, please contact us by calling 510.668.4200 or emailing our rates team.