{"id":130093,"date":"2025-08-08T21:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130093\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T21:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:51:09","slug":"san-antonio-water-system-seeks-first-residential-rate-increase-since-2020-to-fund-capital-improvement-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130093\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Water System seeks first residential rate increase since 2020 to fund capital improvement plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) plans to increase residential rates in 2026 to support a capital improvement plan focused on upgrades, the utility\u2019s chief financial officer said during a Monday board meeting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Doug Evanson, the executive VP and chief financial officer of SAWS, said that any rate increase would be the first for customers since January 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Since the 2020 rate adjustment, SAWS has invested $2.2 billion in improvements without the need for a rate increase. Evanson said that cannot continue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIn order to carry out the anticipated capital plan for 2026, I believe that rate supports will be needed to maintain our very strong credit metrics, which support our credit rating,\u201d Evanson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Evanson stated that the utility company needs the rate support because of major projects that could cost approximately $600 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cThe two major initiatives really fueling the projected 2026 capital improvement program are the wastewater master plan and the water stewardship initiative,\u201d Evanson said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">In 2026, Evanson said that the utility plans to spend $340 million for improvements to multiple wastewater centers, which have been in service since 1965 and 1987. If no modifications are made, Evanson stated that SAWS could face permit violations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">SAWS also plans to invest $125 million into water distribution network improvements next year, according to Evanson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cThe current plan is to submit a \u2018no rate increase\u2019 proposed budget next month with a desired approval at the November board meeting,\u201d Evanson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">As a result of turnover with the San Antonio City Council and the board of trustees at SAWS, Evanson said that rate adjustment discussions will continue into 2026. The exact rate has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>More SAWS coverage on KSAT<\/b><\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/>\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KSAT &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) plans to increase residential rates in 2026 to support&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,19129,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-130093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-sanantonio","11":"tag-saws","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa","20":"tag-water"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114995362748722596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}