Greater Cincinnati Water Works is asking Cincinnati City Council to approve a 9.5 percent increase in water rates in each of the coming five years — a pace that would leave the average Cincinnati residential customer paying nearly 62 percent more per month in 2031 than this year, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday.
A City Council committee got its first look at the proposal at a Nov. 9 meeting, and the committee could vote on it Nov. 16, according to the Enquirer. Council members questioned how the utility’s priorities would change under a smaller increase and asked for a follow-up report in a week. “I’m not prepared to push this forward,” council member Anna Albi told the committee, the Enquirer reported, asking about charging lower-income residential customers less and large industrial customers more.
The utility says six cost drivers are behind the request, and that their combined price will jump 70 percent over the next five years, according to the Enquirer’s reporting of the utility’s presentation. Two of the drivers are federal mandates: Water Works has replaced more than 10,000 lead service lines since 2018, with 30,000 still to go, and new U.S. EPA rules require it to speed up by November 2027 and replace 3,000 lead pipes a year; and about 12 percent of its supply exceeds the EPA’s new limits for “forever chemicals,” requiring a filtration system at its Fairfield facility aimed at compliance by April, the Enquirer reported. The cost of replacing aging water mains has nearly doubled in five years, and labor, materials, energy, technology and meter upgrades make up the rest.
“It’s the regulations that are extremely costly,” Andrea Yang, Water Works’ executive director since January, told the committee, according to the Enquirer. “Those are not optional.” Yang told the Enquirer the work is “extremely complicated” and “very expensive,” and said a smaller increase would force the utility to consider cutting dollars from other efforts while still funding the mandated work.
The math for households is steep. The average Cincinnati household pays $32.81 a month for water in 2026; under the proposal that rises to $35.94 next year and $51.69 a month in 2031, according to the utility figures reported by the Enquirer. The 9.5 percent annual ask is the highest in years — the utility won 5.55 percent annual increases over the past four years, after 3.75 percent annual increases in the five years before that, the Enquirer reported.
Water is not the only utility bill heading up. The Metropolitan Sewer District is simultaneously asking Hamilton County commissioners for increases of 4 percent in 2027 and 4.5 percent for 2028 through 2031, with county budget hearings set for Nov. 17 and Dec. 1, according to the Enquirer — and because Cincinnati water bills also carry sewer charges, customers could feel both at once after Jan. 1. If the council’s budget committee endorses the water request Nov. 16, the full council would consider it two days later. Greater Cincinnati Water Works, in operation since 1817 and the oldest city-owned water utility in Ohio, serves more than 1.1 million customers across 56 jurisdictions, the Enquirer reported.