• Our latest rate increase was October 1st 2025.
• Two Public Rate Hearings were held where public comments were discussed by the Board.
• The Board and Management are sensitive to the issue of increasing water rates and the burden that has on our customers.
• The Districts average expenses have risen historically with the average national rate of utility inflation, and will more than likely continue to do so.

Statement About Our October 1st 2025 Rate Increase

After discussion about our last rate increase, the Board and management have written the following to better inform the public as to the reasoning behind our rate increases.

The five-member Board of Commissioners of the Neskowin Regional Water District (NRWD), whose responsibility it is to adopt NRWD water usage rates, unanimously approved the recent rate increase. They did so only after lengthy and intensive analysis and consultation with NRWD management, and only after at least six public meetings where the issue of the necessity of increasing rates was discussed. Two of those meetings, which were publicly noticed in advance, were “rate hearings” and were exclusively devoted to the issue of increased rates. Despite some concerns expressed by some customers in advance of these public forums about a potential rate increase, only a very few customers attended any of these public meetings or rate hearings. Those who did attend were able to fully express their opinions and have all their questions and concerns regarding the rate increase addressed by the NRWD Board and management. It was only after this lengthy deliberative process that the Board of Commissioners voted for the rate increase.

The NRWD Board is very sensitive to the issue of increasing water usage rates. It discusses budgetary issues and/or revenue issues at every public meeting. It has also reached out to the community for public input on these matters. For some time, the NRWD has had a budget committee made up of public members who must approve the current budget before the Board votes on it. In the past, it has also had a committee specifically designed to consider potential rate and revenue issues in order to make recommendations on these issues to the Board. The NRWD presently has such a committee made up of five public members and two Board members. In addition, annual budgets and district costs are always available for public review on our website.

The NRWD is a non-profit public utility. All the revenues it raises related to water usage rates go to its general operations, that is, the treatment and distribution of the proper quantity of water for Neskowin water users at the highest possible quality, improving and updating the water system infrastructure, and funding the personnel necessary to deliver these services. Some of these funds have also been utilized at times in taking steps to protect the Hawk Creek Watershed from which all potable water for its Neskowin constituents is obtained.

Since 1952, the average national inflation rate for water system expenditures annually has been approximately 5.3%, roughly double the general inflation rate for all goods and services in the U.S. Since 2021-2022, the inflation rate for water systems nationally and for the Western U.S. region has been approximately the same, as has the inflation rate for NRWD expenditures, despite the NRWD having necessarily hired one other employee in 2023 to more effectively and efficiently operate and maintain its water system. (The NRWD has only four paid employees, a manager/operator, two other operators, and an office manager.) Although the average customer rate increase this year was 17.5%, this came only after the NRWD had lower inflationary expenditure increases than the annual national inflation rate for water systems earlier in this decade.

Inflationary pressures were one of two reasons for the budget deficit facing the NRWD at the time of the rate increase. The other is the decline in customer water usage. 99% of revenues for the NRWD’s general operations comes from rates on customer water usage. Although the collective water usage by NRWD customers fluctuates from year to year, its general recent trajectory has been downward. For example, total water usage in Neskowin reached a high of 31,056,415 gallons in fiscal year 2021-2022 and was only 28,652,145 in 2024-2025.

It is the combination of inflationary pressures due to increased costs for water treatment, maintenance, infrastructure, and normal employee costs associated with these matters, and the simultaneous decline in customer water usage that necessitated this year’s NRWD rate increase.

We would like more rate payers to participate in the rate and revenue review process. The NRWD’s public board  meetings are generally the last Thursday of every month. Rate hearings are publicly noticed in advance. Any of these public meetings and hearings can be attended either in person or virtually by going to the following NRWD home webpage, and then to “Meetings” at the top of the page.