Infrastructure Financing & the Price of Water Services

Building, renewing and replacing water infrastructure is an ongoing, expensive enterprise. Paying for that ongoing investment requires financing and pricing strategies that cover the cost of providing services, while managing long-term debt and ensuring that services remain affordable.

Infrastructure Financing

There are numerous programs and tools to assist communities in financing their water infrastructure investments. The following links provide information on a number of avenues to pursue.

• EPA's Clean Water State Revolving Fund
• EPA's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund
• USDA's Water and Environmental Programs—U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development
• HUD's Community Development Block Grant Program—U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• EPA's Financing for Environmental Compliance—Water Resources and Tools
• Tools for Financing Water Infrastructure (PDF) (55 pp, 236K, About PDF)  
  

Price of Water Services

The funding for daily operation and maintenance and long-term capital investments for drinking water and wastewater systems are typically generated through user fees. When measured as a percentage of household income, the U.S. pays less for water and wastewater bills than other developed countries. Because of this, there is a perception that water is readily available and water services are generally inexpensive. To meet our essential infrastructure needs, public education on water sector system operations as well as private water conservation is needed.

Pricing of water services should accurately reflect the true costs of providing high-quality water and wastewater services to consumers in order to both maintain infrastructure and plan for upcoming repairs, rehabilitation and replacement of that infrastructure. Drinking water and wastewater utilities must be able to price water services to reflect all of the costs of treatment and delivery.

There is an extensive body of knowledge on approaches to pricing water services to help consumers learn about how it affects them and their community. To delve deeper into the topic, follow one of the following links:

Pricing Structures—Approaches to pricing water sector services.

Affordability Considerations—Pricing to ensure everyone can have the service they need.

Frequently Asked Questions: Pricing Water Services—Learn about your water and wastewater bills.

Pricing Resources—Guides, tools, articles, reports and case studies.

Many of the resources posted on these pages are for informational purposes only and may not support or coincide with official EPA policy.