Stanford: "Hotter, drier weather could double water bills in some cities."
"The average cost of tap water in the United States has increased 3 times faster than inflation over the past 2 decades, driven largely by aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance." Climate change is layering a new and poorly understood pressure on top of those existing strains. "Hotter, drier conditions driven by climate change could nearly double water bills in some cities by mid-century."
"Climate change stresses water supplies + forces utilities to build expensive new infrastructure to maintain reliability,” says author Jennifer Skerker, a PhD student in civil and environmental engineering. “In cities already struggling with affordability due to aging infrastructure, the additional costs passed on to ratepayers to pay for...infrastructure + reliability measures can push a substantial share of households into crisis.”
The small coastal city of Santa Cruz, California relies almost entirely on local surface water and a single reservoir. "Using a modeling framework developed with data from Santa Cruz's water department, the researchers linked plausible future climate scenarios with utility adaptation decisions, such as building a wastewater reuse facility, methods for pricing water, and household-level water demand."
Paying for major new infrastructure could push the share of households exceeding the EPA’s recommended affordability threshold from 19% to 35%. "More than 5% of households would have to devote as much as a third of their income to water, likely forcing painful trade-offs with food, healthcare, and other necessities."
This modeling framework can be adapted to assess water affordability risks in cities—such as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Cape Town, and Melbourne, Australia—facing vulnerabilities similar to those of Santa Cruz.
I have a love affair with Santa Cruz. I will never forget the long weekend when I took our 3 young children there when my wife had other work responsibilities. A grand old time.
