01
About the Utility
East Bay Municipal Utility District provides drinking water and wastewater treatment in California’s East Bay through two separately reported systems: a Water System serving a population of 1,400 thousand and a smaller Wastewater System serving 740 thousand. Each system issues its own fixed-rate revenue bonds; at the end of FY2025 both carried AAA ratings from S&P and AA+ from Fitch, with Moody’s rating the water bonds Aaa and the wastewater bonds Aa1. The District’s Board adopted average water rate increases of 6.50% for each of FY2026 and FY2027, and its adopted budget carries wastewater increases of 8.5% a year. The District also generates renewable energy from hydropower and wastewater biogas.
02
Water System
EBMUD treats raw water drawn from multiple sources and stores untreated water in reservoirs. Orinda, the largest of its treatment plants, has a peak capacity of 190 MGD, and the District met every state and federal drinking water regulation in FY2025. Renewing the distribution network is the central operating task: EBMUD replaced 25.4 miles of pipe in FY2025, meeting its 25-mile target. Losses remain material. Of the 56,124 million gallons supplied in 2024, 4,828 million gallons were water loss, including 3,659 million gallons of real losses.
Total water production
EBMUD Water System total water production, millions of gallons, FY2016–FY2025 (fiscal years ending 30 June)
Reported actuals, each from that year’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
Sources: EBMUD Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports FY2016–FY2025, Statistical Section, Consumption and Account Comparative Highlights.03
Wastewater System
The Wastewater System is centred on the Main Wastewater Treatment Plant, which provides secondary treatment for permitted dry-weather flow of up to 120 MGD and up to 168 MGD during wet-weather storms, with further primary-treatment capacity for peaks. The plant itself has had no effluent limit permit violations since August 1999. Storms are the pressure point. Fines of approximately $848,000 over the last five years related mainly to wet-weather events, including an October 2021 discharge at the Point Isabel Wet Weather Facility, and two effluent limit violations occurred at the wet-weather facilities in January 2026.
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Investment & Priorities
The Water System’s capital programme is projected to require cash expenditures of approximately $2.86 billion over FY2026–FY2030, with distribution pipes accounting for 27% of that forecast. These are planned outlays, not spending to date. Debt is also rising: long-term debt reached $3.7 billion at the end of FY2026, up 8% in a year. Revenue bond debt service coverage nonetheless stayed above the District’s policy target for the Water System, the Wastewater System and the District as a whole.
05
Sustainability & Resilience
EBMUD’s current goal is for both the water and wastewater systems to be carbon neutral by 2030, with process emissions exempted. Its emissions indicator recorded 15,583 MT CO2e for FY2025. The District generates renewable power from hydropower at its Sierra Nevada foothills facilities and from biogas produced in wastewater treatment, and the wastewater system reported energy recovery of 111% in FY2025. Its wastewater climate plan finds that a sea level rise of 12 inches would have no effect on the main treatment plant.
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Key Challenges
- Renewing the distribution network at the 25-mile annual pace its target sets.
- Keeping real water losses within the State Water Board standard that applies from 2028.
- Preventing wet-weather discharges and permit violations at the wastewater facilities.
- Delivering a capital programme of approximately $2.86 billion while holding debt service coverage above policy.
- Reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 across both systems.