Water district approves 2027 rates, with the typical home bill up 6.93 percent

The Eagle River Water and Sanitation District will charge more for water and wastewater service in 2027, under a rate schedule its board of directors adopted on Oct. 22, 2026, after public hearings on the rates and on the proposed 2027 budget. Resolution No. 2026-13, signed by Board Chair Dick Cleveland and attested by Secretary Robert Warner Jr., adopts the new water and wastewater rates, fees and charges effective Dec. 1, 2026, replacing the schedule now in effect. The district is a Colorado special district based on Forest Road in Vail, and the schedule covers its wastewater customers and the Vail water system.

For the customer the district uses as its benchmark, an individually metered home using 5,000 gallons a month, the combined water and wastewater bill rises from $142.57 to $152.46 a month, an increase of $9.89, or 6.93 percent. The water side of that typical bill rises from $74.88 to $82.09 a month. The wastewater base portion rises from $67.69 to $70.37. Bills will vary by account type, meter arrangement and use, and the adopted schedule runs to many pages of rates for multi family, commercial, mixed use and irrigation accounts as well.

The capital charge does most of the work

The largest single driver is the Capital Replacement Program charge, the charge that funds replacement of aging infrastructure on a pay as you go basis rather than through new borrowing. On the residential water bill it rises 60 percent, from $9.25 to $14.80 a month. On the residential wastewater bill it rises 12 percent, from $6.05 to $6.78. The base water rate rises 8 percent, from $25.78 to $27.84 per month. The three bond debt service lines on the residential water bill all fall in dollar terms, a change the packet attributes to larger contributions from irrigation accounts.

The steepest increases fall on the largest water users. Residential usage rates rise 10 percent in the first tier, up to 6,000 gallons a month, to $4.28 per thousand gallons, and 10 percent in the second tier. The third tier rises 7 percent. The fourth tier, from 18,001 to 30,000 gallons, rises 30 percent to $30.55 per thousand gallons, and the fifth tier, above 30,000 gallons, rises 35 percent to $48.90. The budget packet states the purpose in plain terms: the fourth and fifth tier rates are adjusted to promote water conservation. Mixed use accounts reach full parity with commercial rates in 2027, completing a phase in that ran at 80 percent of commercial in 2025 and 90 percent in 2026.

Paying more now to borrow less later

The strategy behind the schedule was set a month earlier. At the board meeting on Sept. 24, 2026, district staff presented the proposed 2027 budget, and the minutes record that directors backed the plan to raise rates sooner, starting in 2027, on the stated reasoning that smaller steps now would spare customers steeper jumps later and cost less in total over time. The 2027 budget documents apply the same logic to the Bolts Lake Redevelopment project, the district water storage project: its strategic financial plan incorporates a 2029 start date, with the project partially funded by rates and fund balances and partially funded by bond issuances planned for 2029 and 2032. The packet puts the total proposed 2027 capital, capital replacement and bond projects budget at $52,407,588, of which $48,126,180 is wastewater projects and $4,281,408 is water projects.

The Oct. 22 hearing followed a notice trail documented in the board packet: legal notice published on Aug. 7, a public notice on the district website on Sept. 23, a legal classified notice on Sept. 25 and a notice carried on customer billing statements on Oct. 3, with public comment at the hearing limited to three minutes per person under the district bylaws. Residents who want their own figures can read the full adopted schedule, Exhibit A to Resolution No. 2026-13, in the district Oct. 22 board packet, posted on the district board page alongside the meeting materials.