Clovis City Councilmembers on Monday approved rate increases to cover what staff say will be a coming deficit in what it costs to deliver water.

Over the next three years, Clovis water users will see not only a 60% increase to their rates, but also a change to how they are billed.

Staff at the meeting said increases will cover not only operations and management in the face of inflation but also plans for new projects costing $83 million over the next five years.

Councilmember Lynne Ashbeck said rate increases will make sure the city’s water system will be reliable in coming years.

“It gives us the stability if our water system fails, and we’ve seen it fail on the street or on a block …” Ashbeck said. “It’s not great and it causes all kinds of disruptions.”

Councilmembers unanimously approved the rate increase.

Average Water Bill Increase of 21% in January 2027

Beginning January 2027, the average water rate will go up 21%, said Kevin Tuttle, the city’s assistant public utilities director. That includes a 50% increase on service charges and a 79% increase in volume rates for the lowest water users.

Clovis will eliminate tiered rates, meaning the cost of water by volume will actually go down in the first year for people using more than 40,000 gallons over a two-month period.

In drought times, the city can also implement a surcharge to ensure income if people are saving water and revenue levels go down.

Some at the meeting objected to eliminating the tiered system, saying there need to be incentives to encourage water conservation.

Clovis staff, however, said that following court rulings against other cities, the state is very strict about proving that rate increases follow the cost to deliver water.

“We don’t have that level of data yet,” Tuttle said.

Major increases will continue until 2029 — 21% in 2028 and 18% in 2029 — with 3% increases set for future years to keep up with inflation.

Water System Nearing 50 Years Old: Tuttle

With a system built in the 1970s and 1980s, Tuttle said the water system is aging. The city hasn’t done a rate increase since 2016, when it made itself revenue neutral. The last major increase was in 2009.

“We’re looking at a water system that’s coming up on 50 years old in a lot of aspects,” Tuttle told the council on Monday.

At current revenue levels, the city can’t cover basic operations and maintenance costs and is dipping into reserves to perform maintenance on broken pipes or water mains, he said.

It also comes as water costs to operate have doubled in the last four years. Energy costs have increased $2.9 million to $5.3 million, water filters have gone from $1,550 to $2,800, and major hardware and constructions costs have gone up more than 100%, he said.

The city also has projects planned through 2032, including a $1 million recharge basin in Loma Vista this year, new water meter connections by 2029 at a price tag of $9.9 million, and a new storage reservoir by 2029 for $4.4 million.