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Study Highlights Nation-Leading Affordability Crisis

Washington, D.C. – A striking new report from the national advocacy organization Food & Water Watch details the soaring cost of water in the largest water systems throughout the U.S. The comprehensive study, which tracks the 10-year change in water bills among the largest systems in the country, shows an alarming trend contributing to the deepening affordability crisis – and West Virginia is the most impacted state. 

  Among the study’s top findings:

• In West Virginia, water bills have nearly doubled (a 95 percent increase) for typical households over the last decade. This exceeds the national average increase of 62 percent.
• In West Virginia, water bills have grown about twice as fast as median household incomes over the last decade.
• Drinking water bills were unaffordable at the median household income in West Virginia, with typical households charged 2.3 percent of their income for drinking water. West Virginia and Puerto Rico were the only two regions with water bills unaffordable at the median household income. 
• Water affordability is a major concern for low-income households in West Virginia, with water bills exceeding 10 percent of their income. 
• Nationally, water bills increased at 1.6 times the rate of inflation and more than 2 times greater than the price of groceries over the last decade.
• Nationally, corporate water systems charged 67 percent more than publicly owned systems in 2025, or an extra $329 a year on average.

“Across the country, a water crisis is quietly brewing. While struggling to afford all the basics, households are grappling with water costs that are growing faster than they can keep up with,” said Mary Grant, water policy director at Food & Water Watch. “Rampant corporate abuses of our water and federal disinvestment in aging systems are driving up water bills, forcing households to pick up the tab of this neglect. Policymakers must rein in corporate abuses, hold polluters accountable and provide dedicated funding for water. Everyone should have safe and affordable water.” 

Experts in the region have highlighted the need for additional federal and state support to protect West Virginia’s water. The federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 provided about $50 billion for water infrastructure nationwide over 5 years, but that federal funding dried up on September 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. 

“Safe drinking water depends on infrastructure that works, and right now, far too many of West Virginia’s water systems need investment to repair aging infrastructure, address contamination, and provide safe, reliable drinking water,” said Maria Russo, Policy Specialist at West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “We need to invest in our water infrastructure now, with sustained state and federal funding and stronger accountability for polluters, so that the burden of maintaining essential water services doesn’t fall disproportionately on the households least able to afford it.”

The full dataset included water bills for the 500 largest community water systems in the United States, covering 45 percent of the U.S. population, and among these systems were two largest community water systems in West Virginia, both of which are owned by American Water, serving 17 percent of the state population. The study compared 2025 water bills in the 500 largest systems to those from our last comprehensive study of these systems, in 2015. No federal agency or other government entity collects this information nationally; no other publicly accessible resource holds the full dataset.