High water users in Redmond might pay more in the future as the City looks to incentivize conservation amid declining groundwater levels and rapid population growth.
The Redmond City Council began a discussion Monday about adopting a tiered water rate structure, which would apply increasingly higher rates to each portion of water used beyond a certain threshold.
Those exact thresholds still need to be hashed out by the Redmond City Council. Based on Monday’s discussion, the City Council could adopt the new rate structure this summer, but it likely wouldn’t go into effect until 2027.
According to City officials, the tiered rate would likely come into play during the summer months, when the average Redmond household water use jumps by a factor of four, according to the City.
“In the irrigation season, people use a lot of water. That’s where our problem is,” Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch said during Monday’s meeting. “Unless you have some incentive to reduce that volume of use, we’re really not making any headway.”
After tracking steady declines in the rain and snow-fed aquifer below Central Oregon from which Redmond pumps its groundwater, Oregon water regulators drafted new rules making it unlikely that future requests to increase pumping in the Deschutes Basin will be approved. Redmond officials believe the City has enough water under its current permit to handle growth for the next 15 to 20 years but hope conservation efforts will stretch water even further.
Joshua Wedding, Redmond’s public works operations manager, told the Council the City is on track to reach a goal to reduce water use by 10% in the next 10 years, all based on voluntary compliance. In the last 10 years, the City has introduced new software allowing residents to closely track water use, offered free showerheads, toilet tank bags, gauges and shower timers to save water. It also offers a rebate program for people who purchase efficient sprinkler heads and irrigation controls.
The University of Oregon did a study on tiered water rates for the City in 2016, according to the City’s 2023 Water Conservation and Management Plan, but the City Council opposed the policy at the time.
None of the councilors spoke in opposition on Monday.
“We need to do it,” Councilor Cat Zwicker said.
Wedding, the public works director, presented an example of how the tiered structure might change bills for customers who use a lot of water, especially through outdoor irrigation. In the example, the water bill for a 5,400-square-foot lot watering every day would jump from about $122 to around $149 during peak water use in July, and see $10 to $20 increases during other summer months. During the winter, when water use is lower, there would be virtually no difference between a tiered rate and the current structure.
The City’s proposed budget for next year also includes a 5% standard water rate increase, or a few dollars a month for many customers.
Wedding told the Source on Tuesday the City plans to sink additional revenue from the tiered water rate structure back into the rebate program for sprinkler heads and irrigation controls.
This article appears in the Source May 21, 2026.
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Irrigation uses 90% of all water in the basin, and they’re not only not incentivized to conserve based on use volume, they’re not even metered! To be clear, irrigators don’t pay for water, they pay to have their water delivered, or conveyed, to their properties.
We’re currently being asked, as taxpayers, to fund almost half a billion dollars to have 18 miles of one of COID’s two main canals piped. What about the other almost 700 miles of just their system? Don’t know; they’ll be back, hat in hand, in another round of taxpayer funding.
That piping is a cost of conveyance. There is currently no incentive for a COID patron to conserve water, only a flat fee based on their maximum allowable delivery, or duty.
Yes, water is a tough issue to communicate on. But it’s sad to see an article like this, where Redmond is struggling to figure out how to continue to be a beacon for new residents, and the major water users aren’t even in the discussion.