Cost of Service Study

Irvine Ranch Water District provides high-quality drinking water, and reliable sewer collection sewer collection and treatment services to more than 445,000 residents, and a daytime population of over 600,000, in Central Orange County. We serve all of the City of Irvine and portions of the cities of Tustin, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Orange and Lake Forest, as well as certain unincorporated areas of Orange County.

A critical IRWD objective is to keep costs, and therefore rates, as low as possible for our customers. Even with the proposed increase, when compared with other agencies providing similar services in Orange County, IRWD’s rates are consistently among the lowest.

As a public agency, IRWD’s rates are based on the actual cost to provide water and sewer service to our customers and are based on the expenses included in IRWD’s budget. The IRWD Board of Directors adopted a two-year budget on April 26, 2021. The District is now proposing new rates which will be effective January 24, 2022.

The rates that have been proposed are based on the analysis of contained in this 2021 Cost of Service Study, which shows how IRWD’s proposed rates are calculated and the costs that drive them.

The 2021 Cost of Service Study includes the 2020 Raftelis Cost of Service (COS) Study, which confirms IRWD’s cost allocation methodology results in cost-of-service based rates; two technical memos, which are included as Exhibits A and B; and Appendices 1-8 which utilized the cost allocation methodology from the COS to support the proposed rates.

View the 2021 Cost of Service Study

View the 2018 FOG Program Fees Study Report

View the Prop 218 webpage

View the Rates and Charges webpage