It’ll cost more to take a bath and flush the toilet in Fort Worth next year. Here’s why
You’re going to pay more for water next year, and one of the reasons is inflation.
The average user is expected to pay $2.18 more on their monthly water bill or $26.16 for the whole year, according to a Fort Worth Water Department memo. Water rates are going up 3.5% and wastewater rates are going up 2.9%.
It is the first time the rates have gone up since 2020.
The department is putting more money into fixing old pipes and building new ones to deal with the increased demand from the city’s explosive population growth.
The department has put a lot of work over the past few years to tighten its belt so as to avoid a rate increase, water department chief Chris Harder told the City Council at an August work session.
“But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t recommend a rate increase when we really need an increase,” Harder said.
Part of the increase will cover the cost of borrowing money to pay for major upgrades to both water and sewer mains along with updating the city’s wastewater treatment facilities. The department budgeted an extra $14.4 million in 2024 for principal and interest payments on existing and planned debt.
“The same way you’re seeing an increase in buying milk at the grocery store or bread for your children, cities are seeing those same increases,” Mayor Mattie Parker said at the Sept. 19 council meeting.
The water department plans to spend $1.5 billion over the next five years with the largest expenditure of $324.7 million going to waste water treatment plants, according to the department’s capital plan.
Most of that money will be spent over the next two years to update the Village Creek wastewater treatment plant, and build the new Mary’s Creek wastewater treatment plant.
The department also plans to spend nearly $287 million on maintaining and replacing water and sewer pipes in city streets. That includes replacing the roughly 800 miles of cast iron pipes, which are the oldest in the system and are more likely to break.
The only water users not getting a rate increase are those classified as, “irrigation,” users. These are users life golf courses, or home owners associations who are watering a common area that isn’t going to recirculate into the water supply through the sewer system.
These users have dedicated water meters that are only used to measure water going to their irrigation or sprinkler systems. They are already paying at a rate that covers the cost of delivering the water, so their rates don’t need to be increased, according to the department memo.
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