Water Bills Are Up 62 Percent in a Decade, and PA Is Near the Top
A new national report finds water bills up 62 percent in ten years, with Pennsylvania systems among the most expensive in the country.
If your water bill has been climbing faster than almost everything else, you are not imagining it. A new national report from Food and Water Watch finds the average household drinking water bill rose 62 percent between 2015 and 2025, about 1.6 times the rate of inflation and more than twice as fast as groceries. Nationally, bills also grew 19 percent faster than the median household income.
The Washington advocacy group compared 2025 bills at the 500 largest community water systems, which serve about 155 million people, with its 2015 findings. The average household using 60,000 gallons paid $531 a year. The range runs from $133 at the cheapest system to $1,416 at the priciest. In 93 percent of the systems studied, the report found water unaffordable for the lowest-income households.
Pennsylvania shows up on the expensive end. Pennsylvania American Water’s Pittsburgh system charged a typical household about $1,356 in 2025, up 71 percent in ten years. Aqua Pennsylvania came in at about $1,351, up 73 percent. Pittsburgh’s own public authority was close behind at roughly $1,223, and its bills jumped 152 percent. Across the line, West Virginia had the highest statewide average at $1,383.
Ownership matters in the report’s numbers. Corporate-owned systems averaged $823 a year against $494 for public ones, a gap of $329, or about 67 percent. Food and Water Watch argues that corporate control drives bills up. Utilities of every kind, public and private, are also paying for aging pipes, contaminant removal such as PFAS, storm repairs and a long pullback in federal support, and that cost lands on ratepayers. Pennsylvania’s list includes both kinds of systems, so this is not a one-villain story.
Confluence is far too small to appear in the report, and its water comes from a public system, the Confluence Municipal Borough Water Authority. Those figures are not Confluence’s, but the pressures are the same.
Read the report, look up your own utility, and keep your bills. Water is the one bill nobody can shop around for.
Based on Food and Water Watch’s 2026 report, “Surging Water Costs amid the US Affordability Crisis,” as summarized by the H2O Water Network. System figures are from the report’s rate tables.