One Gate, Two Water Bills: Who Really Prices the Water in Las Campanas

Two houses inside the Las Campanas gate can buy their water from two different utilities. The Las Campanas Water Co-op is the only water provider for every estate except Estates I and II, which Santa Fe County serves directly. The Co-op processes wastewater for all of the estates.

The two rate structures look alike on a winter bill and pull apart in summer. A buyer touring homes in mid-November is looking at the low-use months, when the providers are nearly even. The meaningful difference shows up in July, and in how each utility gets its water in the first place.

The tiers behave differently

The Las Campanas Water Cooperative's residential rate schedule has two tiers. Since October 1, 2026, it charges $9.57 per 1,000 gallons for the first 10,000 gallons in a month and $19.61 per 1,000 gallons after that. The monthly maintenance fee on a 3/4-inch meter is $30.31.

Santa Fe County's FY 2027 rate sheet has five tiers that climb every 4,000 gallons. They start at $8.93 per 1,000 gallons, then go to $12.31, $19.01 and $25.73, and reach $31.72 per 1,000 gallons above 16,000 gallons a month. A 3/4-inch residential meter has a monthly service charge of $24.68, and each 1,000 gallons carries a $0.03 conservation fee. The County says these rates came from a 4.2% annual adjustment that took effect July 1, 2026.

We ran three sample months through both published schedules. The figures cover water only on a 3/4-inch meter, before taxes, using the rates in effect in November 2026. They show how the math works. They don't predict any particular household's bill.

At 6,000 gallons, a typical low-use month, the two bills are within a few dollars. The Co-op's higher meter fee roughly offsets the County's lower first tier. The gap appears once outdoor watering starts. At 15,000 gallons, a County customer has already moved through four tiers. At 25,000 gallons, every gallon past 16,000 costs the County customer $31.72 per thousand, and the Co-op customer is still paying $19.61.

This is where a buyer can get caught off guard. A November showing and a winter bill say very little about what the yard, the courtyard plantings or a filled water feature will cost in August. The questions that do tell you something are which provider serves the lot and what the summer bills looked like.

Why the Co-op's bill looks the way it does

The Co-op doesn't pump its own household water. It buys bulk water from Santa Fe County and then stores, distributes, meters and bills it to members, with Jacobs under contract to run distribution and the onsite wastewater plant. The Co-op's July 28, 2026 board packet says the County's bulk price went from $7.90 to $8.18 per 1,000 gallons on July 1, 2026. The County rate sheet lists the same $8.18 as its "High Usage" rate for all tiers from that date.

So the Co-op pays a flat wholesale price and sells to members at a two-tier retail price. Its Tier 1 charge of $9.57 is only slightly above that wholesale cost, and the rest of its expenses are covered by the Tier 2 premium and fixed fees. According to the same packet, the October 2026 increase was driven by Jacobs contract escalation tied to June 2026 inflation indices, the County bulk price increase, and costs from the Buckman Direct Diversion.

The fixed charges have moved too. Between October 2025 and October 2026, the Co-op's monthly residential sewer maintenance fee went from $67.10 to $75.07, an increase of about 12%. Since July 2023, Tier 1 has gone from $8.36 to $9.57 and the 3/4-inch maintenance fee from $25.60 to $30.31. These charges apply in every month, wet or dry.

The diversion the golf courses drink from

The second piece of the cost picture is the river. The Buckman Direct Diversion takes water from the Rio Grande for the City and the County. According to the City, it also sends untreated river water to Las Campanas for golf-course irrigation. BDD operating reports show raw-water deliveries to the Club's Booster Station 2A averaging 1.0 million gallons per day in May 2026, 1.24 in June and 1.13 in July.

BDD's FY2025 audited financial statements state that the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County each own 50% of the facilities. The Club and the Co-op have no ownership stake, but they pay a proportional share for the facilities they use. For FY2026, BDD's proposed budget asked $292,070 from the Club and $109,380 from the Co-op, including operating and major-repair contributions.

That second number matters for the Co-op's members. The Co-op ended up with part of the BDD's capacity when the original Las Campanas Limited Partnership dissolved, and it also buys finished water from the County, whose bulk rate already reflects BDD operations. The Co-op's Legal and Governance Committee described it this way in the July 28, 2026 board packet:

"Given that the Co-op is simply a bulk water consumer of Santa Fe County, we are basically paying these O&M costs twice, once as part of the bulk water rate and then directly to BDD."

At that July 28 meeting, the Co-op said its water-rights attorney was negotiating with the Club and Santa Fe County to have each take over part of the Co-op's BDD capacity, which could save about $120,000 a year. In the second quarter of 2026 alone, the Co-op recorded $57,743 in BDD costs, compared with $300,146 for purchased water. For a buyer, the result of that negotiation is one of the cost items to follow through the 2027 rate cycle.

A ceiling that has already been reached once

The supply side has a firm limit. Under a Bulk Water Service Agreement dated October 28, 2009, the Las Campanas Limited Partnership deeded 332 acre-feet per year of water rights to Santa Fe County, out of 709.46 it held. That figure became the most the County would deliver to Las Campanas in a year. In 2023 the community went over it, with the County delivering 347 acre-feet. Use stayed under the limit in 2024 and 2025. In June 2026 the Co-op deeded another 36 acre-feet per year to cover expected growth, including new communities coming online, over the next three years.

The river has its own limits. At the BDD board's May 7, 2026 meeting, staff explained that native-flow curtailment starts when Rio Grande flow at Otowi falls below a five-day average of 325 cubic feet per second. They said the diversion had already shifted to essentially 100% San Juan–Chama water earlier than expected.

Outdoor water is where the rules point

The Co-op's Sustainability Committee, writing for a utility that serves about 4,000 members, has proposed guiding principles that treat indoor water as essential use and outdoor potable water as discretionary use. The proposed baseline program in the July packet would ban irrigation from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from May through October. It would also require leak repair within one to two days and WaterSense fixtures in new construction, and it would discourage new high-water turf. The Co-op's posted Water Rules, revised September 25, 2026, cover allotments, surcharges, leaks and possible seasonally adjusted rates. They also allow conservation measures when County water is limited.

All of this lands on the same lever as the tier structure. Outdoor water is what pushes a household above 10,000 gallons with the Co-op, or above 8,000 or 12,000 with the County. A low-water landscape cuts the summer bill on both systems, and the gain is largest under the County's steeper tiers. That is a practical point to weigh when comparing a lawn-heavy resale against a xeriscaped one.

Questions to settle before an offer

1. Which utility serves this lot, the Co-op or Santa Fe County? Las Campanas Estates I and II are on County water and every other estate is on the Co-op.
2. Can the seller share water bills for June through September, as well as the winter months?
3. What meter size serves the home? Both schedules charge more for larger meters, and the Co-op's 1-inch fee is $75.79 a month.
4. For a vacant lot, what are the carrying costs? The Co-op charges annual fees of $291 for water maintenance and $205 for sewer maintenance, plus connection fees of $3,500 each for water and sewer.
5. How much of the landscape relies on irrigation from potable water?

Quick answers

Who do I call about water service in Las Campanas?

The Co-op's administrative office is at 218 Camino La Tierra, Suite C2, and its phone number is 505-930-7155. Homes in Estates I and II are served by Santa Fe County Utilities.

Do the golf courses use household drinking water?

According to the City, the Las Campanas golf courses are irrigated with untreated Rio Grande water delivered through the Buckman Direct Diversion.

When do Co-op rates usually change?

The most recent schedules took effect October 1 in both 2025 and 2026. The County's annual adjustment took effect July 1, 2026.

This post is general information drawn from published rate schedules and utility documents. It isn't legal, tax or financial advice, so please confirm the rates, rules and service details for a specific property with the utility and the right professionals.

If you're comparing homes across Las Campanas, Ralph Alan Real Estate Group can help you find out which utility serves each one and request summer bills alongside the disclosures, so a property's water costs show up in your numbers before you write an offer. Start with an instant home valuation, then let's talk about the property.