Water bills for Cedar Creek Lake residents are expected to rise in the 2014 fiscal year. The Tarrant Regional Water District, which owns and controls the water in the Cedar Creek Lake Reservoir, notified water utility districts in August of its plans to increase raw water prices. The price of raw water will increase from 86 cents per 1,000 gallons to 98 cents, which is a 12-cent or 14 percent increase in the cost. Water utility districts will pass on the increase to their water customers. Fort Worth officials recently told residents to expect an increase of about 5 percent on their water bills. Water utility district officials attribute the increase in raw water prices to the construction of the Integrated Pipeline Project from Lake Palestine that will be connected to Cedar Creek Lake and other water reservoirs. The pipeline project is a joint venture by Tarrant Regional Water District and Dallas Water Utilities. Its completion is expected in five years. It is being built to provide water to customers in the DFW Metroplex. The water districts anticipate large population growth in coming years that will demand larger water deliveries. Similar large population growth is expected in the Cedar Creek Lake area as Dallas expands to the southeast. County officials note that there is no other direction left for Dallas County to expand than to this direction. Water district officials point out that water has been a plentiful, inexpensive commodity in the past but its anticipated scarcity will make it much more expensive in the future.