March 20, 2025

Corte Madera – The Marin Water Board of Directors on Tuesday approved updated charges that apply to customers connecting new services to the District’s water system or when upgrading their existing water service.  

The updated charges, which were recommended through a study performed by an independent public financial advisor hired by Marin Water, will take effect July 1, 2025 and are posted on the District’s website.  

These capacity charges (currently referred to as connection fees) are collected as one-time fees from customers in need of a new water service connection or a larger water meter and are designed to proportionately recover the reasonable costs of water system infrastructure required to ensure reliable and secure water service for each new or upgraded connection.

The Board’s Tuesday action better aligns Marin Water’s fees for this service with that of industry standards by utilizing a more common proportionate cost recovery methodology, based on American Water Works Association standards, for the customer receiving the service benefit.  

Marin Water’s charges for this service were last updated in 2018 and up until now, have been established by estimating a customer’s annual water use per acre-foot. Under the new charge structure, the capacity charges are based on the size of the water meter for each new or upgraded connection. Since larger water meters place a higher demand on the District’s infrastructure, utilizing this model ensures proportional charges are applied as a meter size increases to recover the District’s capital costs associated with meeting those higher capacity water system demands.

For more information on the updated charges or to review the Capacity Charge Study, go to marinwater.org/2025CapacityChargeStudy. 

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