Water is a business.
Advocates argue that water is a basic human right. It’s also a product, provided for a cost and purchased by consumers. Whether filling a 40-ounce water bottle, taking a long, relaxing shower or running the tap for two minutes of teeth-brushing, water consumption is an often overlooked part of our everyday lives.
Like other expenses considered essential for life such as food, electricity and a Wi-Fi signal, the water bill is a recurring payment. And just like other utilities, residents sometimes have limited options for their service provider.
Long Island residents are served by either public water districts or private water suppliers and, depending on location, some pay significantly more for the same basic necessity — often with little or no ability to choose their provider. While a majority receive water from public providers, a smaller portion of the population is served by private companies, often at higher cost.
The dollars and cents
When their water bill comes in, many ratepayers feel a sharp pain in the wallet. Costs can fluctuate based not only on how much they use, but what they use it for.
Several water districts estimate that the average use for a family of four is nearly 400 gallons per day. In some cases, especially in private service areas, water bills can range from $500 to $800 per month during peak summer periods, according to longtime advocate Agatha Nadel, a resident of Glen Head.
Pricing differs sharply between public and private water systems. According to Pamela Bellings, a communications specialist at Liberty Water, “Residential water rates are set through a regulatory process overseen by the New York Public Service Commission.”
“Rates are designed to recover the cost of operating, maintaining and upgrading water infrastructure while ensuring service remains safe and reliable,” Bellings said of how Liberty determines its residential rates.
“Rates do not fluctuate month to month, but they may change over time following regulatory review and approval,” she added. These proposed changes require detailed justification and include opportunities for public input before a decision is made, which helps balance customer affordability with the need to maintain and modernize critical water infrastructure, according to Liberty.
Critics argue that despite regulatory oversight, the structure of private water systems can lead to significantly higher costs due to general service charges, meter charges, regulatory charges and other fees.
Public water suppliers typically provide a standard water usage rate, a conservation rate — a type of sliding scale applying higher fees to higher use, intended to encourage judicious water use — and an irrigation fee for dedicated sprinkler systems, which are presumed to be relatively lower priority than consumption.
“We feel water is a basic need. You need it for drinking, cooking and bathing,” said Robert McEvoy, chairman of the Oyster Bay Water District. “Once you get past that, whether you’re putting 15,000 gallons on your lawn in the course of a quarter or you’re drinking every last drop, it has to meet the same standards, health-wise. We have to treat all our water the same way.”
While treatment standards remain consistent for public safety, pricing can vary significantly depending on the provider. In some towns, prices may even vary between houses on the same block due to water zoning boundaries or the homeowners’ use of private or public water supplies.
“Water districts are determined or created as part of town law,” McEvoy explained. “A lot of the boundaries pre-exist the Nassau Subdivisions Act and the Nassau County charter — when they were established. Some of them run sort of coterminous with school district lines.”
Nadel’s residence, for example, is in the Liberty Water service area, while homes just 100 feet away are served by the public Jericho Water District.
“My neighbor pays a fifth of what I pay in an entire year,” Nadel said. “No taxes, no surcharges, nothing.”
Pricing differences, advocates say, are driven largely by the structure of private systems, which include profit margins and surcharges and have limited access to the government funding that public providers rely on to offset costs.
Residents in a private system can pay three to five times more than those served by public water providers, according to Nadel. Private water companies are guaranteed a baseline profit of about 9.75 percent per project by the New York Public Service Commission, and that can rise to as much as 12 to 15 percent.
According to Nadel, a four-year rate cycle in the mid-2010s brought an increase of about 120 percent, significantly driving up household water costs.
A major issue voiced by private water customers is the amount they pay in fees added to their water bills, which typically include base usage rates and additional charges such as taxes and surcharges. In some cases, nearly half of the bill is not for water usage. Surcharges can include the cost of infrastructure projects such as filtration systems, water towers and other capital improvements.
“It’s an absolute sin,” Nadel said of the surcharges. “Forty-one percent of a typical water bill goes to charges and taxes that have nothing to do with the actual water usage. It really is an absolute sin.”
Public vs. private water suppliers
While most Long Island homeowners rely on public water services from their local municipality, private water suppliers may be an option for certain service areas. Liberty Water is one of the area’s largest private alternatives, currently supplying water to nearly 120,000 Nassau residents, primarily in the Town of Hempstead. A homeowner who wants an alternative to either public or private water suppliers would need to install and maintain a private well, subject to local and state requirements.
“For most customers, remaining connected to a regulated public water system provides reliability, water quality oversight and long-term infrastructure support,” Bellings said.
As a result, most Long Islanders continue to receive water service from the provider assigned to their area, even if they are dissatisfied with it. Because water is tied to geographic districts, homeowners typically cannot choose their provider.
As a matter of public safety, water suppliers — public and private — must adhere to state and federal guidelines to monitor and remove waterborne contaminants. “Private suppliers have the same health department and [Department of Environmental Conservation] requirements — federal, state and local requirements for pure water,” McEvoy said. “They have the same maximum contaminant levels for the same contaminants. Their testing requirements are the same as us, whether it’s a public or a private water supplier.”
McEvoy has decades of experience in the water industry, having previously served as chairman of the Long Island Water Conference and president of the Nassau Suffolk Water Commissioners’ Association — both organizations dedicated to ensuring water quality, safety and affordability across the Island.
Nadel explained that the Water Authority of North Shore has two main options to deliver public water: build and operate its own system or contract with an existing public provider. In her own research with North Shore Concerned Citizens, she has concluded that contracting with nearby systems — such as Jericho, Glen Cove, or Roslyn — would be the fastest and most practical approach because those providers already have infrastructure in place.
Long Island’s water systems are interconnected, allowing supplies to be rerouted during emergencies such as contamination events or periods of high demand, demonstrating that a transition from private to public supply may be feasible. Nadel said the shift would not be overly complex, but rather a matter of political will.
Homeowners having scant options is an issue on both shores, but potential alternatives have been considered for several years. The South Nassau Water Authority was created in 2021 to potentially offer Town of Hempstead residents an alternative to Liberty Water. A plan to establish a new water authority and create a sustainable, efficient and effective alternative to Liberty has been in the works for years. Residents and legislators are eager to move forward, but negotiations to transition away from the current water supply are complex and have moved slowly.
“Right now, the options are very limited,” explained Assemblywoman Judy Griffin, who represents District 21, which encompasses Baldwin, East Rockaway, Lynbrook, Malverne, Rockville Centre, South Hempstead and parts of Freeport and Valley Stream. “Residents that live in the Village of Rockville Centre and the Village of Freeport have municipal water; however, those who live anywhere else in AD-21 are served by Liberty Water with no ability to opt out, unless the municipalization of South Nassau Water Authority becomes a reality. The primary goal being to transition these private customers to public control to lower costs.”
Public funding for some, but not for others
“Strong communities start with a strong infrastructure,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a 2024 news release. “Clean water is a basic human right.”
Last month, Hochul announced a plan to direct $28 million in state and federal grants to Long Island to help facilitate water infrastructure upgrades. The funds are part of a $250 million statewide project to improve water infrastructure.
The plan follows similar financial support in January of this year, when Hochul sent $18 million to Long Island — one part of a $288 million project — with the similar aim of making water and sewer infrastructure improvements.
In a statement supporting the most recent funding, Village of Hempstead Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. wrote, “We know that access to clean water is not a luxury, but it is a necessity.” Hobbs continued, “Upgrading our aging water system, replacing outdated pipes and improving the overall system is critical to protecting public health.”
The influx of funds can play a significant role in maintaining and upgrading anything from deteriorating equipment at water treatment plants to damaged underground supply lines. As government agencies, water districts can benefit from funding directly from the state, while private businesses cannot. The trickle-down effect, so to speak, of extra governmental funding is that cost savings can be passed to residents. More important, water quality and safety can be more easily maintained. Private suppliers address potential safety issues at their own expense, without state or federal aid.
“Currently they’re not available for private water companies,” McEvoy said. “But the Long Island Water Conference has put it on their agenda to seek legislation that would give them access [to public funds] only for treatment of the contaminants. Not for any other purpose.”
Due to the unequal funding for environmental upgrades, public water providers are in a stronger financial position to improve infrastructure and remove contaminants using state and federal funds, while private systems are excluded from receiving them — meaning costs are passed on to residents.
The Environmental Protection Agency requires community water systems — public and private — to publish “community confidence reports,” most commonly in the form of yearly water-quality reports that reveal test results for contaminants, as well as facts and figures detailing overall water consumption.
The Jericho Water District Annual Drinking Water Quality Report for 2024, for example, highlighted nearly 4.9 billion gallons of water provided to 58,000 customers, averaging 13.4 million gallons per day. Jericho Water charges a minimum of $13 per calendar quarter, at a rate of $1.30 per 1,000 gallons up to 10,000 gallons. Fees increase on a sliding scale with usage — similar to the conservation rate used in other municipalities — reaching $3.90 per 1,000 gallons for usage above 200,000 gallons per quarter.
According to the 2025 Liberty Annual Water Quality Report for the Sea Cliff Operations District, the average customer used just under 95,800 gallons of water, at a cost of about $1,340, or $3.67 a day. Liberty also revealed that it served roughly 4,388 customers, at a total cost of $5.9 million.
The reports highlight how costs and scale can vary widely between systems, even as both draw from the same regional water supply.
