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Review your water bill monthly so you are familiar with how much water your household uses throughout the year. Visit our Wise Water Use Tips page to learn about wise water use like checking for leaks and addressing them in a timely manner, monitoring outdoor water use, and other suggestions that might apply to your household. In addition, you can visit our Financial Assistance webpage for more information about financial assistance for your water bill. 

Prince William Water’s goal is to set fair and equitable rates and fees while providing clean, safe, reliable drinking water to our customers and to protect the environment. This means ensuring that Prince William Water’s infrastructure is well-maintained and in good working condition, which requires a significant capital investment every year. The adopted rates for 2025-2027 are primarily driven by capital replacement needs, the rising cost of construction, as well as increases in purchased drinking water, purchased water reclamation services and other operating costs.

Prince William Water purchases most of its drinking water from advanced treatment plants owned and operated by Fairfax Water. Wholesale water rates charged by Fairfax Water have increased significantly over the past few years. Prince William Water also purchases water reclamation services from the Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA) to serve a portion of our customers. Recently, UOSA treatment costs have also increased considerably.

In addition, the updated rates and fees are also required to properly maintain our infrastructure, meet or exceed environmental regulations, and continue delivering the high-quality, reliable service our customers expect from Prince William Water.

Prince William Water’s average monthly bill is considered affordable or low burden using several affordability metrics.  

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends multiple affordability measures and guidelines for water and sewer service. The guidance originally developed by the EPA in relation to median household income states that customers’ bills under 4.0% of median household income are considered affordable.   

To expand upon the view of affordability for households with lower incomes, several additional metrics have been developed over the years, including Lowest Quintile Residential Indicator and the Hours Worked metrics.  

• The Lowest Quintile Residential Indicator approach evaluates a customer bill at the lowest quintile of income instead of median income, with a threshold of under 4% considered affordable.  
• The Hours Worked approach evaluates the number of hours worked at the prevailing minimum wage to pay the typical residential water and sewer bill, with the threshold of under 8 hours worked deemed affordable.  

Based on Prince William Water’s typical household consumption of 5,000 gallons per month, Prince William Water’s proposed monthly water and sewer bills for fiscal years 2025 through 2027 are less than 1% of median household income, under 2% for Lowest Quintile Residential Indicator and under 7.0 hours worked at minimum wage.

The rates that take effect in 2025, 2026 and 2027 continue to reflect Prince William Water’s average monthly bill as affordable and continue to place Prince William Water’s average bill among the lowest in the region. 

A typical residential customer uses 5,000 gallons of water monthly, which results in the following monthly water and sewer bills for the years 2025, 2026 and 2027. The new rates take effect on January 1 of each year.