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About Your Bill

HOW IS MY MONTHLY BILL CALCULATED?

Water Bill: Billed monthly, made up of two types of charges:

  • Basic Charge – fixed amount based on you billing meter size
  • Consumption Charge – based on consumption of water used during the meter reading period. One unit of water is equal to 100 cubic feet, or 748 gallons.  

Sewer Bill: Billed monthly, by a fixed basic charge.

Click here for Current Rates

Meters are consistently read and bills are issued as nearly as possible on the same day within each billing period. Bills are due on or before the due date specified on your billing statement. If for any reason you fail to receive a bill as scheduled, please notify the District office immediately. Charges continue in the name of the current customer until the District is notified of intent to discontinue service. 

Sample Bill

The bill sample featured represents a sample billing statement with most common items found on your bill: 

  1. Bill Stub: Please mail back with your payment
  2. Special Message: Provides important information regarding billing, rates and District activities. 
  3. Account Information: Provides account number, service address, service type, route number, billing period, bill date, and due date
  4. Meter Information: Provides read dates, prior and current meter reads, and number of units used in HCF.
  5. Billing Information: Shows current charges (basic charge, consumption charges, sewer basic charge) recent payments, adjustments, previous balance, and total amount due.
  6. Usage Information: A bar graph view of current and previous water use. You can compare this year’s use to last year at the same time. Provides current use in HCF and the average gallons per day and percentage change.
  7. Critical account information will be listed here such as No Checks or AutoPay. 

Understanding Your Bill

Learn more about rates, fees and surcharges.

Water Rates: Tiered rates result in the cost per unit of water increasing as one uses more water. With the new rates there are three different tiers, and each tier has a set amount of water associated with it. In a given monthly billing cycle:

  • Tier 1: The lowest rate applies to the first 4 units of water used.
  • Tier 2: The next 4 units (5 to 8), have a slightly higher rate.
  • Tier 3: Any usage beyond the first 8 units enters this tier, with the highest charges.

Service Charge: The Service Charge is a monthly charge that recovers administrative costs, meter maintenance and other operational expenses related to providing water to your home or business.

Capital Charge: The Capital Charge is a monthly charge to recover capital-related costs.

Private Fire Charge: A charge that only applies to customers with private fire hydrants and/or a private fire service line to recapture the costs of the associated service.

Fire Surcharge: The District was severely impacted by the 2020 CZU Fire. The District’s water system sustained extensive damage including to raw water supply lines, storage tanks, water treatment systems, pumps, water quality monitoring equipment, and water transmission pipeline. The District instituted the Fire Surcharge in 2021 following a public process. Most residential customers pay $9.67/month. The surcharge will automatically end once $5 million has been collected or could be terminated early. It’s anticipated this rate will sunset in by Fall 2026.

Customer Class Definitions:

  • Single Family Residential – Includes homes with a single ADU
  • Commercial - Includes multi-residential, mobile homes, and homes with two or more ADUs
  • Industrial - Includes schools and private mutuals
  • Irrigation - Includes parks

Bear Creek Estates ONLY

Wastewater: The Wastewater Charge covers the cost of building, operating and maintaining the system that collects, treats and disposes of the wastewater. This is a fixed monthly rate.