Water and Sewer Rates Going Up - It’s Official

Stevie Quilo
3 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 17 hours ago

Brace yourself – water and wastewater service rates are officially going up. The average residential water bill will increase 21.8%. The average residential wastewater bill will increase 68%. Special conditions do apply. The City of Del Rio will implement these new rates for the 2026 fiscal year, providing an effective date of October 1, 2025. The average increase adds up to less than $25 additional cost per month.

On Tuesday June 25, water and wastewater were some of the last items on City Council’s long agenda. The night was full of questions, but once ordinance O:2025-051 & O:2025-052 were on the table, the room became quiet. The first vote was wastewater. 10 full seconds of silence passed waiting for a motion before Mayor Al Arreola broke the ice, “okay… this is a done deal right…”

Councilperson J.P. Sanchez spoke up with a short statement: “Nobody wants to do it, you know, but we are gonna have a debt of $62 million dollars that we are gonna have to cover, so we are gonna have to raise rates to cover the $62 million dollars. And we need to do it today, because if not, our bond rating is gonna lower and its gonna be worse for the City of Del Rio… And the loans that were already being approved, will not be given to us… The City of Del Rio is between a rock and a hard place. Nobody wants to do it, but here it goes, I’ll make a motion to approve this ordinance…”

Councilperson James DeReus seconded the motion. City Manager Shawna Burkhart provided a comment before the final vote. Burkhart said the rate increase accounts for the “full extent of the Silverlake Sewer Line being upsized from the plant all the way to the northside of town.” Burkhart also said the Silverlake Sewer Line is “approximately 100% full… At times when we have heavy rains we are in the risers of the manholes, so we have to do something or unfortunately we are going to encounter fines from TCEQ if we overflow those mains.”

Arreola took a moment to recognize the needs of the citizens for health and safety, as well as the needs of the city for economic development. He implied that this rate change would facilitate improved quality of life and sustainable growth in Del Rio. When asked if all were in favor, the City Council voted unanimously yes.

The water rates vote proceeded and the City Council voted unanimously yes. Councilperson Carmen Gutierrez made the motion to approve. DeReus seconded. Gutierrez tried to ask one question before the final vote, regarding water pressure improvements. Public Works Director Greg Velazquez was at the podium and began answering her question, but the Mayor and City Attorney interjected saying details on water pressure will have to wait for later. When Velazquez had the floor, he took the opportunity to say, “thank you for looking at this this over and it was a hard decision but thank you very much. It was much needed; it caught up to us.”

Grant Rabon of NewGen Strategies & Solutions presented a rate study, one year in the making

Before the votes, the council asked many questions to Grant Rabon of NewGen Strategies & Solutions during his presentation of the water and wastewater rates analysis. Rabon had been working with the Interim City Finance Director for over a year. He explained where he got the numbers and defined the “average residential” consumption as an 8,000 volumetric charge for water and 6,000 volumetric charge for wastewater, saying that is the rough equivalent average of what people in Del Rio are using on a monthly basis. Rabon also confirmed the city will maintain their policy for a 5% senior discount and a 15% upcharge for out-of-city-limits service.

Laughlin Air Force Base currently pays a $2.48 water rate, which is less than rates paid by the lowest income Del Rio residents. But that is changing. As of this October 2025, Laughlin’s rate is doubling to $5.00. This leapfrogs them into a higher payment tier than the average resident. This choice helps to offset rate increases for the average resident.

The biggest changes include reinstating “volumetric charges” which increase rates based on usage and consumption. Rabon said it’s a design for sustainability, “to discourage overconsumption.” For residential service, the first 3,000 gallons will be charged at the base rate… and any consumption above 3,000 will be charged at a slightly higher rate. Consumption over 10,000 gallons increases the rate significantly, nearly double the base rate.

Rates will continue to increase over the next several years, the approved plan extends all the way into fiscal year 2029. The biggest rate jump will be the first increase hitting this October 2025. The reason wastewater has a huge 68% jump the first year is because Del Rio has basically been giving away wastewater service for free, providing the first 3,000 gallons at no charge. That is gone. Free wastewater service is no longer common practice, and Del Rio needs to keep up with the times.

In 2027, wastewater rates will go up another 23.2% for the average resident… 9% more in 2028, and 7.7% more in 2029. For water rates, the first jump is 21.8% in October 2025. In 2027, water rates will go up another 9.2%... 1.9% more in 2028 and 4% more in 2029. $112.55 will be the average combined residential water and wastewater bill in 2029, compared to the $62.75 average today. Rabon said, with these changes, and assuming normal weather patterns, the city will “be able to fully recover.”

It may be a hard pill to swallow, but Del Rio water rates have not increased appropriately over the last decade, and now the city is playing catch up. There is no working around it, the city needs to invest in infrastructure and needs loans to do so. Burkhart provided context: “TWDB for our SWIFT funding, our clean water revolving fund applications, our drinking water revolving loan applications, our Texas military loan application… all of those are dependent upon our ability to make our debt payment. This is how you as a council will be illustrating to those financial entities that we are solvent, we are always going to make our debt payment, and this is our commitment to that effort.”