According to a UCLA report, Los Angeles County’s water bills have risen on average by nearly 60% over the past decade, surpassing inflation and increasing financial pressure for low-income households.
The researchers compared the average cost of the same amount of drinking water in 2015 and 2025 and said the results show that water affordability is an escalating issue in Southern California.
“It’s worrying that we have this trend that exceeds inflation,” said Edith de Guzman, a collaborative expansion water researcher at UCLA Luskin Innovation Center.
She and co-authors said several factors contributed to higher water costs, including local decisions to upgrade the water delivery system and prepare for drought and adhere to water quality rules.
In addition to water costs, researchers also looked at the quality Southern California Water System Atlas Detailed description of 663 water supply systems in six counties, which account for 40% of California’s population. The fact that hundreds of hydropower serve residents in the area shows that California’s water provides fragmented levels and how it can lead to differences, they say.
Suppliers include institutions operated by large cities, smaller areas, investor-owned utilities and mobile home parks, etc.
In 2012, California became the first state to declare safe and affordable drinking water human rights. As rising bills make more customers work hard to pay, some advocate permanent Rating Assistance Programbut these have not been adopted by state or federal officials.
UCLA Pierce said that as the delivery costs of utilities approve water prices, it will become a bigger problem over the next 20 years, as aging systems require more investment and stricter regulations on pollutants.
Pierce said: “We have to invest more. But that money has to come from somewhere. I think now we’re just saying, ‘It’s from you, the local taxpayer, so you’re alone.’
If California really wants to deal with affordability, it should be looking for solutions for those struggling to affordable utility bills, Deguzman said.
“Someone has to collect bills,” she said. “It’s becoming increasingly challenging for some of our neighbors to do it, and if we don’t think about how to generate political will and provide assistance to these communities, we will not only fail to get human water rights, but we will also leave a lot of neighbors behind.”
UCLA and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Reports, which also include Mapping Tools Presenting local data reveals differences between water institutions, poorer communities often pay differences than communities in wealthier areas. The map allows users to zoom in and see how many people are serving in a certain water area and how many violations have occurred in the past five years.
People who get water from small water systems often face more pollution problems.
Kern County has the largest number of providers in rural areas Violation of water pollution in the county studied. More than half of the county’s violations have been violated, with 91 systems citing 1,546 times over the past decade, more than three times the rate of any other county in Southern California.
In 2023, a kettle outside a house in the Fuller Acres community in Kern County is sitting outside. The community’s water system has exceeded the carcinogenic level of 1,2,3-trichloropropane.
(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
Many violations are targeting unsafe levels of arsenic or coliform bacteria. The report said that contaminated water in small agricultural communities in Kern reflects chronic problems “related to agriculture, groundwater pollution and small systems with insufficient resources.”
Researchers found that over the past five years, approximately 88,000 people in Southern California have relied on a system of violations of drinking water regulations. The vast majority, about 76,000 people live in Kern County.
De Guzman said the findings highlight the need to improve those small water supply systems. “I hope this tool makes inequality obvious.”
