Water Transfers, Sales Keep Proposed Rate Hike Under Inflation
June 23, 2026
Water Authority Board to vote on 2027 wholesale rates at upcoming June meeting
The San Diego County Water Authority’s staff has proposed a 3% rate increase for 2027 with similar adjustments preliminarily expected through 2032. The 2027 recommendation is below the national rate of inflation and down sharply from both earlier projections and recent years, highlighting the bottom-line impact of two water transfer agreements executed this spring.
“We’re keeping our promise to working families across the region by using new revenues to minimize water rate impacts,” said Water Authority General Manager Dan Denham. “At a time when costs are rising across the board, the Water Authority is focused on making a real difference for San Diegans.”
The Water Authority sets wholesale water rates annually, while providing periodic guidance to its retail member agencies regarding future years so they plan accordingly. The cost of water at the tap is a combination of costs from wholesale and retail water agencies. Homes and businesses feel the impact of rates differently, based on their water use and how local retail water agencies handle costs.
Over the past 30 years, the San Diego region invested strategically in water supply reliability, which both helped the region weather multiple droughts and increased water bills. Today, those investments allow the Water Authority to monetize aquatic assets in the form of new partnerships with two Riverside County water agencies that will generate tens of millions of dollars annually for San Diego County over the next two decades.
In addition, the Water Authority is implementing an interstate water transfer partnership program with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and agencies in Arizona and Nevada. The plan is to create a legal and regulatory framework that would allow the Water Authority to “move” water from the nation’s largest seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad to areas in the drought-ravaged Colorado River Basin that need more water. If successfully developed, it would be the first program to transfer water across state lines within the basin.
Details about the proposed 2027 rates are in the Board documents posted here, starting on page 21. A public hearing about the rate proposal is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the June 25 Board of Directors meeting, before the Board acts on the rate proposal.