{"id":283672,"date":"2026-09-11T10:24:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283672\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T10:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:24:26","slug":"philadelphia-water-rates-to-jump-an-extra-7-a-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283672\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia water rates to jump an extra $7 a month"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk<\/a>, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.\n<\/p>\n

From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia residents will see a 7.5% increase in their water bills this month.\n<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Water Department has raised bills by about $7 on average, meaning the typical residential ratepayer could see a monthly bill of about $96.16 per month.\n <\/p>\n

The rates were changed to offset increased participation in the city\u2019s Tiered Assistance Program<\/a>, which allows lower-income residents to pay their water bills based on their incomes.\n<\/p>\n

The increase also will help the water department fund water, wastewater and sewer upgrades.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers are our primary, and essentially, sole source of income for all of the work that we do,\u201d said Paul Fugazzotto, an assistant deputy commissioner for communications and customer information at the water department.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only are we taking water out of the river, cleaning it up and making it into drinking water, we\u2019re also sending water to our treatment plants through thousands of miles of pipes, and cleaning it up so that it can be clean enough to go back into the source waters,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of those tasks, and all of the infrastructure, requires money to maintain and update.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Why are water bills higher?<\/p>\n

Every year, the water department adjusts surcharges on ratepayers\u2019 bills based on how much it costs to subsidize the water usage of lower-income residents who rely on the Tiered Assistance Program. That means when there\u2019s increased enrollment in the program, bills rise for people who don\u2019t participate in the program. There are currently 70,000 people enrolled in the program, according to the water department.\n<\/p>\n

The department has increased participation by automatically enrolling residents who qualify, and partnering with the city\u2019s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity<\/a> to personally reach out to eligible residents.\n<\/p>\n

In 2019, 25,000 people were at risk of losing access to their water supply because of unpaid bills. The water department said there\u2019s been about an 80% reduction in overdue bill notices, and attributes it to a number of new assistance programs<\/a>, as well as improved access to the Tiered Assistance Program.\n<\/p>\n

Expanding enrollment in the program ultimately saves the water department money by reducing unpaid bills and the need to engage in costly collection practices.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,24479,35896,8427,5206],"class_list":["post-283672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-water-department","tag-water-bill","tag-watershed","tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}