The Queen Creek Town Council voted unanimously on Sept. 16 to begin creating a new water resource fee, along with five other utility rate changes. No rate was set that night.

The Council approved six notices of intention, each one setting a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, at the Community Chambers, 20727 E. Civic Parkway in Queen Creek. All six passed 7-0. The notices start a 60-day period for public outreach and education, and Nov. 18 is the date the rates can be adopted.

Queen Creek Water's existing service territory includes customers in the San Tan Valley area, and the proposed fee would apply to Queen Creek Water customers.

Who This Reaches in the San Tan Valley Area

Much of the San Tan Valley area is served by EPCOR, and nothing in this proposal touches EPCOR customers.

The Town of Queen Creek's water utility serves roughly 40 square miles of the Queen Creek area, and that service area extends past the town limits. The Town's own instructions for new water meters draw the line plainly, telling applicants with projects "outside the Queen Creek Town limits that receive Queen Creek Water" to file with Maricopa County or Pinal County.

Those San Tan Valley area customers include homes in parts of east San Tan Valley that Queen Creek has served since it took over the former Diversified Water Utilities system in 2020.

The quickest way to check is the water bill. If the Town of Queen Creek issues it, the home is a Queen Creek Water customer. The Town also publishes a water service area map and a separate "Do I live in Queen Creek?" page for checking the town limits.

As with the 15% increase SanTanValley.com covered in July 2025, San Tan Valley area residents who buy water from Queen Creek do not vote in Queen Creek elections.

What the Water Resource Fee Is

The fee is meant to pay for water the Town has already bought.

Queen Creek says it has purchased 3.1 million acre-feet of water for $730 million, including 1.7 million acre-feet from the Harquahala Valley, a state-designated water storage and transportation basin. The Town describes it as a drought-proof, 100-year supply that would be delivered through the existing Central Arizona Project canal. With it, the Town puts its reliance on local groundwater at about 6% and on the Colorado River at about 10%.

Nearly all Queen Creek water customers, 89% by the Town's count, are enrolled in the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District, or CAGRD, and pay a CAGRD assessment on their annual property tax bill. Since 2018 the Town has been paying CAGRD on customers' behalf at the highest allowable rate, which it says has saved customers $71 million. The water resource fee would take the place of that assessment.

What It Would Cost

The year-one proposal is $3.07 per 1,000 gallons, charged on usage.

For a residential customer using 10,000 gallons a month, the Town puts the impact at $30.70 a month, or $18.42 for customers who receive a wastewater credit.

That credit is based on how much water comes back to the Town through the sewer system, which the Town treats and reuses to offset groundwater pumping. As proposed:

• Residential and schools: 40%
• Commercial and multifamily with landscaping: 80%
• Commercial and multifamily with no landscaping: 90%

The Town says the fee will vary account by account based on three things: water usage, account type, and the customer's current CAGRD account type.

Only Year One Gets Set in November

The Nov. 18 hearing sets the first year only. Staff have described five more annual increases after that, each requiring its own public process and its own Council vote.

The Queen Creek Tribune, reporting on the Council's discussion, put the six-year trajectory this way: for an average single-family customer on the Town sewer system, the fee climbing from about $16 to about $57 a month; for water-only customers, from about $40 to about $138 a month.

At the Council's Sept. 2 discussion of the rate package, Council Member Travis Padilla said that on the same usage, his own bill in six years would be 342% of what he pays now.

Customers on Septic Pay the Higher Track

The wastewater credit only exists for customers who send water back through the Town's sewer system. Customers on septic do not, so they do not get the credit, and they land on the higher of the two tracks above.

Padilla raised this at the Sept. 2 meeting, asking about credit for water-only accounts that return effluent through septic systems. Utilities Director Marc Skocypec said that once the Town becomes a designated water provider the whole system receives an automatic incidental recharge credit of 4%, but that nothing for septic systems is built into the current model. He said Chandler negotiated its own rate to 8% or 9% and that Queen Creek would pursue negotiations. Asked how many septic users the Town has, he put it at around 7%.

That 7% figure is the Town's.

What Else Is on the Nov. 18 Agenda

The water resource fee is one of six items. The others:

• Water delivery rates, adjusted to match cost of service. The Town describes the impact as minimal or none for most categories. Single-family tiers would be adjusted so tiers 1 and 2 go down and tier 3 goes up. Multifamily would move to a uniform $1.50 per 1,000 gallons, non-residential to $2.50, landscape to $4 and hydrant to $9, each on top of a base rate.
• A new water resource capacity fee and an increase to the existing water capacity fee, both one-time charges paid by new development, not by existing customers.
• Wastewater rates, with the fixed charge scaled by meter size, affecting non-residential and multifamily customers.
• Solid waste, up $3.78 a month for all curbside customers, with other solid waste fees rising by a similar percentage.

How to Weigh In

Public meetings are set for Tuesday, Oct. 13 and Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the Community Chambers, 20727 E. Civic Parkway in Queen Creek.

Staff are also holding open houses at the Municipal Services Building, 22358 S. Ellsworth Road, in the San Tan Conference Room:

• Oct. 1, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Oct. 7, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
• Oct. 12, 9 to 11 a.m.
• Oct. 20, noon to 2 p.m.
• Oct. 28, 4 to 6 p.m.
• Nov. 5, 10 a.m. to noon
• Nov. 9, 3 to 5 p.m.
• Nov. 17, 4 to 6 p.m.

The public hearing with possible action is Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m., same location.

The Town has put a bill calculator online. Queen Creek Water customer service is 480-358-3450, which is also the after-hours line.

If the fee is adopted, Town staff have proposed an effective date of Jan. 27, 2027, with the first bills carrying it on March 9, 2027.

Earlier Coverage

• San Tan Valley Residents in Queen Creek Water District: 15% Rate Increase Coming, July 13, 2025
• Queen Creek Proposes 15% Water Rate Increase: What San Tan Valley Residents Need to Know, May 20, 2025
• Queen Creek Temple Site Sits on Land Annexed From San Tan Valley, Sept. 11, 2026