TCWD: 17% Water Bill Increase July 1, Plus Another Increase on January 1
"Average" monthly bill will go up $30 after July 1
After considering four different rate increase scenarios for fiscal year 2026—July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026—the Trabuco Canyon Water District board selected “Option 3” at its June 18 meeting. Option 3 raises each component of the monthly bill—fixed meter charge, fixed sewer charge, and per-gallon charge for water —by 16-17% after July 1, driving the monthly bill up $30 for a customer using 15 billing units of water. Option 3 also includes a second, smaller increase for the rest of the fiscal year, January 1 to June 30, 2026. The second increase will raise the same customer’s water bill from $222.96 to $231.98.
TCWD rates are limited by a five-year cost of service study approved in 2023. July 1 of this year starts the third of the five fiscal years. The study sets out each year’s projected cost of service, along with the charges necessary to fund that service, and is intended to show that the charges do not exceed the actual costs, as required by Proposition 218, now part of the state constitution. The district would have to perform a new rate study in order to raise rates above those set forth in the cost of service study.
The chart below compares TCWD July 1 rates with those of the neighboring water districts.
Sources: TCWD.ca.gov; SMWD Rate Calculator; sample SMWD and IRWD property tax bills; IRWD Schedule of Rates and Charges
Neighbors Willing to Discuss Collaboration / Consolidation with TCWD
But is TCWD?
As previously reported, the TCWD has invited two neighboring water districts to discuss mutually beneficial collaboration or consolidation that might provide rate relief for TCWD customers. Both districts—the Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD) and Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD)—have now responded in a June 10 joint letter, signed by their respective general managers, and stating that they “welcome the opportunity to engage in discussions that may lead to mutually beneficial solutions.”
For over a year, TCWD customers have urged the board to initiate talks that could lead to rate relief. Here are the results of a June 15 Watchdog readers’ poll:
A May 29, 2024 poll asking readers if they supported “consolidation of the TCWD with a neighboring water district if it will lower your water bills substantially” received a 97% “yes” vote
Our View: For over a year now, beleaguered TCWD rate payers have urged their elected representatives on the water board to explore alternatives to endless water bill hikes year after year, incurring debt by borrowing money, and the glaring and shameful disparity between ours and the neighbors’ rates. After months of passive resistance and stalling by the staff and old guard board members, a half-hearted request for proposals finally went out to IRWD and SMWD. We now have their response: they “welcome the opportunity to engage in discussions”!
So have there been discussions yet? Wednesday’s board agenda makes no mention of any. Board members: you work for us, the rate payers. We need you to act on this ASAP, seize the “opportunity,” and report to us each month what you have done.
And we need all readers to make sure that message gets through, loud and clear! Our only hope of overcoming the deep-seated intransigence before next November’s election is continued and intense public pressure. Conversely, inaction means business as usual and the continuing regression of the TCWD into a water district where no one can afford the water.
Please make a public comment at Wednesday’s 6:00 p.m. board meeting. If you can’t be there, at least email written comments before 5:00 p.m. Wednesday to mperea@TCWD.ca.gov
TCWD Board to Re-examine Fixed Meter Charges
Are customers being overcharged for their one-inch water meters?
At the June 18 water board meeting, newly elected director, Mark Anderson, pointed out that the TCWD charges 1-inch water meters over twice as much as 3/4-inch meters. In July 2025, for example, 3/4-inch meters are charged $61.33 per month, while 1-inch meters pay $124.26. This issue will be discussed at Wednesday’s board meeting under agenda item 7.
The monthly fixed meter charge, often the largest component of a customer’s monthly bill, is supposedly based on the maximum possible flow rate in gallons per minute through that meter—the larger the meter, the greater the maximum flow rate, the greater the potential demand placed on the district’s infrastructure, and the greater the justifiable fixed meter charge. Although the actual demand on the district’s infrastructure is generally different, water districts throughout the state have adopted this scheme as a quantifiable method of allocating charges, and complying, at least on paper, with Proposition 218.
There appears to be some flexibility in this rule, however, and not all water districts rigidly adhere to it. In the Santa Margarita Water District, for example, 3/4-inch and 1-inch residential meters are both charged the same amount, despite their different maximum flow rates. And in the TCWD, 5/8-inch and 3/4-inch meters are also charged the same.
Anderson, a practicing civil engineer, contends that the 1-inch meter does not have twice the maximum flow rate of the 3/4-inch meter and should therefore not carry twice the monthly charge.
While some TCWD customers were able to reduce their fixed meter charge by downsizing their 1-inch meters, others were not—for example, some customers with fire suppression sprinklers.
Customers with 1-inch water meters should attend Wednesday’s board meeting at 6:00 p.m. and express their views on this issue.
Where your water bill money went last month—top 10 total payments
A new Watchdog feature
Source: TCWD website
Please attend the water board’s regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, July 16, 6 p.m. at the TCWD office, 32003 Dove Canyon Drive, Trabuco Canyon 92679. The agenda, meeting minutes and reference materials are posted 72 hours before each meeting at TCWD.ca.gov/transparency/public-meetings. Find out how your water bill dollars are being spent, voic
e your opinion, and size-up the possible candidates for the next water board election.
If you can’t attend, please email your comments to mperea@TCWD.ca.gov before 5:00 p.m., or participate by phone at 1 (669) 900-6833 (Toll Free) Access Code: 913-8681-1652. If you email comments, be sure to request that they be read aloud at the meeting and reported in the minutes.
Stay tuned to TCWDwatchdog.substack.com for the latest news on the campaign for affordable water and how you can help.
We need to reach everyone in the Trabuco Canyon Water District. You can help by sharing this newsletter with your family members, friends and neighbors. Copy this link and email, text, or post it on social media: TCWDWatchdog.substack.com
The Rancho Trabuco Political Watchdog Group is a private, non-partisan Facebook group that seeks to keep our community leaders “transparent.” Please join to keep informed about and discuss water district and other community matters.
If everyone just continues to pay what they do now and flat out refuses to be raped financially what will they do? Or just boycott and do not pay it at all.