Phoenix will start disconnecting water service again in November for residential customers who are seriously behind on their city services bills, ending a suspension that has been in place since March 2020. The city says more than 9,000 accounts are seriously delinquent, representing nearly $24 million in past-due balances.
According to KTAR News 92.3 FM, Phoenix had become the lone Arizona city whose water utility did not use residential service disconnection for significantly delinquent accounts, per a city review cited in that report. Those overdue balances are not limited to water usage alone — the City of Phoenix says the nearly $24 million in debt also includes wastewater treatment charges, trash collection fees, and local taxes, all of which are bundled onto a single municipal bill alongside water usage.
Phoenix Water Services Director Brandy Kelso said the city has given customers unusual leeway during the pandemic-era pause. “Phoenix provided customers with extraordinary protections for more than six years,” Kelso said, according to the station's report. Before any shutoff, the city says it will give residents advance notice and a chance to make a payment, and Phoenix Water Services will weigh both the amount owed and the length of delinquency in deciding how to phase in disconnections.
How the City's Payment Plans Will Work
Customers who qualify will be offered structured payment arrangements rather than an immediate cutoff, the same report notes. That requires an initial payment up front, with the remaining balance paid off over time — and customers have to stick to that arrangement to keep their water running.
For households that simply cannot afford to catch up, the city points to Project Assist, which uses city funds and customer donations to help cover bills for income-qualified residents. Eligibility is capped at households earning at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, and the program is jointly funded by the Water Services and Public Works departments while being administered by the city's Human Services Department, per the City of Phoenix. City officials are urging residents facing financial hardship to seek help before they receive a final disconnection notice, and say payments can be made online or by calling customer service at 602-262-6251, available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A Six-Year Pause Shaped by the Pandemic and Rising Costs
This is not the first time Phoenix has tried to restart shutoffs. The city had actually scheduled a return to disconnections back in January 2022, only to postpone enforcement when the region saw a fresh surge in COVID-19 cases, according to the Associated Press. Residential disconnections had originally been suspended in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the bills themselves have climbed substantially. The Phoenix City Council approved a three-phase rate schedule between October 2023 and March 2025 that raised residential water rates by a cumulative 26% and wastewater rates by 20%, according to reporting from the rate adjustments, which were approved in June 2023 to offset inflationary pressures, including a 136% spike in the cost of water treatment chemicals. The council also reduced monthly residential volume allowances that same year — to 3,740 gallons during cooler months and 5,984 gallons in summer — and added a $4 monthly surcharge for households that exceed those conservation thresholds, intended to promote conservation under the city's active Stage 1 Water Alert, per the Associated Press.
Who Oversees Phoenix's Water System
Phoenix Water Services is the largest potable water provider in Arizona, operating 7,200 miles of water mains across a 540-square-mile service area to supply drinking water to 1.7 million residents, according to the City of Phoenix. The utility also handles wastewater for 2.5 million people across five cities, and its municipal water operations date back to 1907.
Unlike privately owned utilities, Phoenix's water system answers directly to the City Council rather than to the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates investor-owned companies but not municipal utilities, according to the Arizona Corporation Commission. That distinction matters for residents, since the commission enforces a mandatory disconnection moratorium for regulated electric utilities from June 1 through October 15 to protect people from power loss during extreme summer heat — a seasonal safeguard that does not apply to city-run water service.
Part of a Broader Regional and National Pattern
Phoenix's rate pressures are not unique. Cities across Arizona raised water rates by 15% to 25% in 2026, including a 25% increase in Gilbert and 15% in Chandler, to fund infrastructure upgrades and address reduced Colorado River allocations, according to Always Green.
Phoenix's move also fits a pattern seen in other major cities, where utilities froze disconnections during the pandemic and are now resuming them. Houston, for instance, was preparing to begin shutoffs on September 8, 2026, for roughly 15,000 delinquent accounts holding more than $30 million in debt after its own multi-year billing pause.
