City of Buckeye
Home Menu2025 Water Rate Adjustment
Buckeye is dedicated to providing safe, reliable drinking water for our businesses and residents, along with providing quality sanitary collection of your wastewater. Currently, Buckeye's Water Resources Department serves nearly 33,000 water customers and over 35,000 wastewater customers.
Each year, we deliver approximately 3.8 billion gallons of water to homes and businesses and collect, transport and treat more than 6.5 million gallons of wastewater daily.
Our water infrastructure is extensive, including 540 miles of water lines, 29 wells and 15 pump stations. For wastewater, we manage 340 miles of sewer lines, four lift stations, 7,900 manholes and four reclamation facilities. City staff monitor and maintain all this essential equipment 24/7, ensuring continuous service.
Despite this dedication, Buckeye's biggest financial challenge starts with our geography. While groundwater is abundant, especially in the central part of the city, much of it is considered poor quality and would require significant cost to treat to finished product that is acceptable to our customers. Our employees have worked hard to locate our wells in areas with better quality to avoid having to construct and maintain infrastructure that treats poor quality groundwater. In addition to the groundwater quality, in many parts of Buckeye the ability to pump groundwater is restricted by hydrogeology, forcing more assets to be constructed and maintained to meet customer demands. Operating these assets and infrastructure is complicated and can be quite costly. Unlike other city departments, the Water Resources Department is self-funded, relying solely on monthly rates and fees to cover all its assets and operations.
Buckeye has made minimal changes to the water rates over the last decade, and this period has made it increasingly challenging to maintain our water and wastewater infrastructure to the high standards you expect. Adjusting rates is essential to keep pace with rising operational costs, necessary infrastructure maintenance, investments in water resources and ensure the long-term sustainability and reliability of these vital services for our growing community.
Notice of Intent (NOI) to Increase Water & Wastewater Rates Issued: February 3
Council to vote to adopt new rates: April 7
Date new rates take effect: May 13
Want to Find Out More?
For all questions or comments regarding the 2025 Water and Wastewater Rate Adjustment, please contact city staff via our online form. To receive a response back from city staff, please indicate "Yes" on the final question, and staff will follow up with you at our earliest convenience.
Utility Bill Calculator
Use our Monthly Utility Bill Estimator to see how the upcoming Water and Wastewater Rate Adjustment will affect your household budget.
How to use the Monthly Utility Bill Calculator: To get an accurate estimate, have a recent utility bill handy to find your meter size and average water usage.
- Choose your customer type
- Identify your meter size: Enter your account number in the top-right corner of bill estimator
- Find your monthly water use: This can be found on your monthly statement
- Enter your monthly water use in the monthly consumption space
- The bill estimator will instantly show your estimated monthly costs over the next few years
Watch our video for more on how to use the Monthly Utility Bill Estimator:
Water Rate Adjustment Frequently Asked Questions
General Water Frequently Asked Questions
Water Fact Sheets
Public Outreach Meetings
We invited all residents to participate in three public hearings to get more information on this water rate adjustment. These hearings were your opportunity to understand exactly why this adjustment is necessary to maintain, repair and modernize the infrastructure that delivers safe, reliable water service to your home.
Each meeting began with a presentation from our Water Resources Director, Terry Lowe. Followed by questions from the public. After the Q&A portion, the public mingled with the Water Rate Committee and city staff and viewed information boards on display.
The three meetings were held:
Meeting Materials
Presentation
Water Rate/Water Committee Fact Sheet
Meet the Water Resources Department
Council's Water Workshop
Proposed Water Rates
Podcast featuring information on water rates and the Water Resources Department:
Water and Wastewater Rate Committee
To address the potential of water and wastewater rate adjustments, Buckeye established a 2025 Water and Wastewater Rate Committee. Operating under proposed by-laws, the committee developed recommendations and presented these recommendations to City Council.