Budget prioritizes system reliability, water supply and flood control
EL PASO – The Public Service Board approved El Paso Water’s Fiscal Year 2025-2026 water, wastewater and stormwater budgets on Wednesday to improve reliability, water supply and flood control.
“We are prioritizing affordability this year by adding two new rate features to help our lowest water users,” said EPWater President and CEO John Balliew. “While we continue to focus on reliability, we have to ensure sufficient funding to operate and maintain our system. We look forward to implementing these options to ensure our services remain affordable.”
Customers can reduce the impact of rate and fee increases through conservation:
- Very low water users of 1 CCF will qualify for a 30% discount on the minimum charges. Currently about 15,000 customers will qualify for this discount.
- The waiver for the Water Supply Replacement Charge will be raised from 3 CCFs or less to 4 CCFs or less. An estimated 69,000 customers will be able to take advantage of this discount of $15.62 monthly.
- Additionally, multiple residential rebate programs are available at epwater.org. Businesses can apply for EPWater’s WaterWise Rebate Program.
The approved budget, rates and fees mean that customers will see an increase of $5.71 per month on the typical residential bill for water, wastewater and stormwater charges. The amount totals a 7% increase over last year’s bill.
EPWater’s funding priorities include:
- Reliability - $342 million: Wastewater plant improvements, pipes, pumping systems and meter replacement program. Bustamante Plant expansion and rehabilitation remains the largest project.
- Growth - $126 million: Northwest development waterline, east waterline extension and northeast wastewater main upgrades.
- Water supply - $76 million: Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant expansion, Advanced Water Purification Facility and aquifer replenishment.
- Flood control - $66 million: New ponds and improvements to dams and pipes.
The budget, rates and fees will go into effect at the start of the fiscal year, beginning March 1.