The current monthly water rates were adopted by the City of Tucson's Mayor and Council on May 24, 2011, and became effective July 5, 2011.

Major rate elements are discussed below, followed by a listing of current rates.

Potable water charges have:
1) a monthly service charge which the customer pays regardless of the amount of water used
2) usage charges
3) a CAP charge
4) a conservation charge

The potable monthly service charge is increased to recover the costs of meter reading, meter maintenance and replacement, billing, a portion of distribution system (pipeline) maintenance, a portion of the capital costs associated with CAP water and public fire protection. The amount of the increase is $1.66 per month for a 5/8" meter, the meter size serving most single family homes, and proportionately larger increases for larger meters.

Residential customers are charged for water usage via an inclining block rate structure. As the usage block increases, the unit price or rate for the block increases.

Other potable customers, with the exception of multifamily, mobile home parks whose individual units have been sub-metered by park owners, and construction water customers, pay a base rate for water usage year round but are subject, in addition, to surcharges in the summer, should their monthly usage exceed their winter monthly usage. (Summer months are May through October, with the remaining months being defined as winter months.) There are two tiers of summer surcharges, and each has a different threshold: the first is applied to any monthly usage exceeding the average winter monthly usage and the second is applied to any monthly usage greater than 145% of average winter monthly usage. Any summer surcharges are added to the charge resulting from the base rate.

Multifamily, mobile home parks with submeters, and construction water customers are charged a year round rate with no summer surcharges. For these customers, a higher year round rate replaces being subject to summer surcharges.

All potable customers are subject to the CAP charge, the revenues from which are used to pay charges assessed by the State agency (Central Arizona Water Conservation District, or CAWCD) for the City's allocation of Central Arizona Project (CAP) water.

First effective with the July 7, 2008, rate schedule, all potable customers are subject to the Conservation charge, a dedicated funding source to recover the Utility's conservation efforts.

Fire Protection charges are related to unmetered fire sprinkler connections to the potable water system. The monthly rate is based upon the connection size and takes into account the amount of water system capacity required for fire suppression.

Reclaimed water charges have two basic components: a monthly service charge (based on meter size) which the customer pays regardless of the amount of water used; and a usage charge.

The current rate schedule is shown below. This information is also available as a printer-friendly download (51 Kb pdf).

Most of Tucson Water's customers are in the single-family class. Single-family customers tend to be low-volume water users. In fact, about 80% of customers in this class use 15 Ccf (11,220 gallons) or less of water, on average, monthly. Shown below is the water bill at various levels of monthly use for this customer class.

All amounts shown are before tax. Taxes billed are turned over to the taxing authority and are not revenues of Tucson Water. Current tax rates: 2.0%, City of Tucson; 7.1%, State of Arizona; 4.0%, Town of Marana; 2.0%, Town of Oro Valley.

Under the current rate schedule, water bills are intended to send a conservation message: use more water, pay more; use less water, pay less.