There is no mistake: City of Manteca water bills went up this summer.

It was part of two rate hikes; the base charge and the water use charge.

But some households were even higher.

The reason? Some households instead of having a 28 to 32 day billing period were sent bills covering periods of use for up to 40 days.

And a few people had water bills for as little as 20 days of water usage.

City staff has been responding to concerns called to their attention on a one-on-one basis.

City Manager Toni Lundgren said staff is looking into what happened and will provide an explanation as well as the reasons behind the annual increases on July 1 over a period of four years that were approved several years ago.

Ome explanation involves households were having older meters switched to smart meters that led to a different billing date that could mean one billing period that is longer or shorter than usual.

That said, the city several years ago when the four-year phase in of new rates were approved made sure the base rate covered all operational costs.

It was done for two reasons.

The city going forward has all of its day-to-day water operational costs covered in the base rate regardless of water use. In doing so, the prospect of emergency rate hikes in a drought emergency due to mandatory water use cutbacks would not occur.

The state also is mandating actual water charges reflect the cost of the water. That eliminated “breaks” for using less than a certain amount of water each month.

The charges for actual water use went up to $3.22 per 100 cubic feet (HCF) on July 1, up from $2.47.

It reflects a 74 cent increase by HCF increase.

Given an average Manteca household goes through 1,600 cubic feet of water monthly, that’s $51.32 or an increase of $11.84.

A 100 cubic feet of water is 748 gallons.’

The base frate also went up $6.37 to $27.60 on July 1.

That means the overall cost to a household using 1,600 cubic feet of water a month assuming they didn’t have a temporary change in the length of their billing cycle in terms of the number of days increased $18.21.

What prompted how

rates were determined

For years, Manteca had water conservation rules in place but most households had no real financial incentive to save water if the amount of water they used monthly stayed in the lower tier.

That lower tier easily accommodated most households given the typical Manteca household uses 16 hundred cubic feet (HCF) of water a month. A HCF unit is the equivalent of 748 gallons.

That ended in 2025 when the current water rate structure was adopted.

And it’s not that the city had any choice.

State water agencies — tasked with stretching out available water supplies need for cities, farming and the environment as well as to stop groundwater over drafting — issued rules that irrigation districts and domestic water systems had to follow whether they are operated by cities, for-profit companies, or homeowner associations.

The rules dealt with volumetric pricing.

In a nutshell, every agency that delivers water and is regulated by the state has to:

*Charge for volumetric water use and not simply have a base rate.

*Eliminate price breaks when users pay less for water when they don’t cross certain thresholds. That effectively makes all water on a HCF basis cost the same which ups the price and is more likely to financially incentivize users to conserve water.

*Have a rate that reflects 100 percent of the cost of obtaining and treating water.

In doing so customers:

*will not be subsiding other customers.

*can save money by conserving water.

*in droughts when water restrictions are in place wouldn’t have to face “emergency” water rate hikes because reduced water sales fail to generate funds needed to maintain and operate the overall water delivery system.

The bills Manteca residents received for July usage during August was the second step of the rate schedule being implemented over four years. Both the base and volumetric rates increased as they did in July 2025.

The big difference was last summer was milder. The hotter temperatures this summer spiked water use for watering lawns, the single largest use of water by residential customers.

Back in 2024, the base water rate for residential customers was $17.15 per month.

The base rate went to $21.23 on May 15, 2025 and then $27.60 on July 1, 2026.

Upcoming base rate hikes are $32.57 on July 1, 2027 and $34.53 on July 1, 2028.

There were three tiers for actual water use:

*Tier 1 for 1 to 20 HCF was $1.03 per HCF.

*Tier 2 for 21-300 HCF was $1.35 per HCF.

*Tier 3 for 300 plus HCF was $2.72 per HCF.

The new rates established a flat rate that started at $2.47 per 100 HCF on May 15, 2025 with that per HCF charge being upped to:

*$3.22 on July 1, 2026.

*$3.80 on July 1, 2027.

*$4.03 on July 1, 2028.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com