Denver Water has announced that it is raising water and drought rates for 2027. Its Board of Water Commissioners approved the new rates unanimously on Oct. 28, and the utility, which serves 1.5 million people, is responding to historic drought and ongoing inflation. Water Finance and Management reported the decision, and its headline opens with "Unprecedented conditions," which is a good reminder that a rate headline describes money, not the quality of the water in your pipes.
You may not live anywhere near Denver, but the lesson applies to any rate notice that lands in your mailbox. Before you rework your budget, you can do one thing that costs nothing: check whether water is moving through your home when nobody is using it.
A Rate Changes the Price, Not Your Habits
Most water bills are built from two parts. The first is your metered use multiplied by the usage rate. The second is often a fixed service charge that appears regardless of how much you run the tap. A higher rate raises the cost of every gallon, including the gallons you never meant to use. A slow leak that seemed minor last year can look expensive once the rate climbs, and it can keep running quietly through the whole billing period.
Read the notice itself, and the utility's published rate schedule, to confirm the effective date and which charges are changing. Some increases touch only the usage charge, while others adjust the fixed portion too. Knowing which part moved tells you which part of your bill to watch.
The Meter Check, Step by Step
Pick a time when nobody in the house needs water for a while. Turn off or avoid every tap, the washer, the dishwasher, the ice maker line, and any irrigation system. Then find your water meter. It is often at the curb in a meter box, or in a basement or utility room near where the supply line enters the house.
Write down the reading and the time. Leave everything alone for at least an hour, then read the meter again. Some meters also have a small leak indicator, often a dial or a triangle, that turns when water flows. If it keeps moving while everything in the house is off, water is passing through somewhere.
If the numbers match, your plumbing is probably holding. If they changed, work through the house one fixture at a time. Toilets are a common suspect, since a flapper that does not seal properly can run without much sound. Check every outdoor hose bib and irrigation zone as well, because a sprinkler valve that fails to close can run for hours without anyone noticing.
Make the Number a Habit
Once a month, read the meter and write the figure on the same page as the matching bill, along with the date. Over a few billing cycles you will see how your normal use rises and falls with the seasons, which makes a surprise much easier to catch. The log does not need to be fancy. A notebook kept near the bills works well, and a phone note works too.
Monthly readings also help you test the new rate against your own life. If your reading looks stable but your bill climbs, the change is coming from the rate, not from your home. If the reading jumped, you have a problem to chase before it grows.
When to Call for Help
If the meter keeps moving with everything off and you cannot find the source, call a licensed plumber. Then ask your utility whether it offers leak notifications or a leak adjustment policy. Policies differ from one utility to the next, so ask rather than assume. It also pays to ask how the current increase applies to the fixed charge and the usage charge, so your questions to the utility are specific.
Keep the Two Checks Separate
A meter check tells you about water use, not water quality. It cannot tell you whether your tap water is safe to drink or whether it contains something you should worry about. For that, you need a laboratory test, and neither a rate notice nor a meter reading can replace one. Treat the leak check and the water test as two different jobs, and do both on their own schedules.