EMWD Announces Water Rate Increase

The Eastern Municipal Water District has announced a 4.5 percent increase in water rates for Menifee area residents as of January 2013. The increase will be applied to all four rate tiers equally and will result in monthly bills that are approximately $2.13 higher for typical customers who use approximately 20 billing units per month.

Cost-saving efforts successfully kept water rate increases to a minimum over the past three years, according to EMWD. However, EMWD is unable to fully absorb the impact of the latest 5 percent increase in rates from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), which adds $4 million in expenses to EMWD over the next year for imported water purchases. The EMWD rate increase was announced to address the higher costs of water supply.

Existing conservation programs such as high-efficiency washer rebates, turf buy-back and large landscape audits will continue until the existing funds are exhausted. In addition, EMWD announced that sewer rates will increase 60 cents per month in order to meet debt repayment obligations for replacement and upgrade projects at EMWD’s four operating sewer treatment facilities.

For more information, visit the EMWD website.