California Water Service Company - Bakersfield System (CWS - Bakersfield)
Bakersfield, City of Bakersfield, Olcese, and North Garden in Kern County
Population reference
267,881 people; 58,818 residential service connections, 6,569 commercial connections, and 28 industrial connections according to California Drinking Water Watch for active system CA1510003. Cal Water also operates the City of Bakersfield water system under an operations-and-maintenance contract, while this record is the active CWS - Bakersfield public-water-system entry.
Billing detail
Broad public detail found
Official destination
Open provider website ↗Provider-specific findings
Billing and account research from public material
Provider-specific research notes are displayed separately from fields that contain only an unavailable-information marker. Read qualifiers in each note and verify current account terms with the provider.
- Billing frequency
- Generally monthly billing, with the bill showing the service period, meter read dates, current charges, due date, and prior balance. The exact read and due-date calendar is premise-specific.
- Rate structure
- CPUC-regulated metered residential structure for the Bakersfield tariff area, with a fixed monthly service charge plus volumetric charges under the current Residential Metered Service BK schedule; separate non-residential and residential-flat-rate schedules also exist. Cal Water's current Bakersfield page identifies the Residential Metered Service BK tariff as effective July 1, 2026. The live page confirmed the schedule date but did not expose the 2026 dollar table during review, so no unpublished tier amounts are inferred here.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- Cal Water bills the Bakersfield potable-water charge. Sewer or wastewater charges may be imposed separately by the City of Bakersfield or another sewer agency and are not governed by one Cal Water Bakersfield formula. The applicable sewer agency may use actual water consumption, a winter average, an upper cap, or a fixed residential equivalent-unit charge. Customers should compare the water meter usage with the separate sewer bill and ask the serving sewer agency for its current base, usage, winter-average, and adjustment rules.
- Meter reading
- The Bakersfield system uses customer water meters and Cal Water's periodic billing reads. The district page does not publish a fixed local AMI deployment percentage or route day; Cal Water company materials describe AMR/AMI pilots in selected districts but do not establish that every Bakersfield account has an advanced meter. Customers should use the bill's read dates and current/previous reads, review usage history in the portal, and ask Cal Water to confirm the exact meter technology and leak-alert capability for the premise. The system's active sources include groundwater wells, Kern River surface water treated through advanced membrane filtration, purchased treated water from Kern County Water Agency, and treatment/blending for source-specific contaminants.
- New-account deposit
- Cal Water Rule 6 permits a cash deposit or other approved credit security when an applicant does not establish credit; the exact amount is account- and credit-specific rather than a universal Bakersfield flat amount. Under the reviewed Rule 7 terms, after 12 consecutive months in which at least 10 bills were paid within 15 days after presentation and service was not discontinued for nonpayment, the deposit is automatically refunded as an account credit with applicable interest. A customer re-establishing service after delinquency may need to pay the balance, reconnection charges, and a deposit.
- Activation or transfer fee
- No single universal 2026 routine name-transfer fee is stated on the reviewed Bakersfield district or payment pages. New-service connections, meters, deposits, construction, inspections, and special facilities are governed separately by Cal Water rules and tariffs. Obtain a premise-specific activation, connection, or deposit quote from the Bakersfield District rather than assuming every transfer is free.
Context, not a score
How documentation coverage compares
This profile
86%
overview fields with research notes
California
67%
records with any overview detail
National index
50%
records with any overview detail
Coverage measures what this directory documented. It does not measure service quality, affordability, or regulatory compliance.
Research record
Broad public detail found
6 of 7 fields in this section contain provider-specific public detail in dataset August 1, 2026.
Documented
86%
Details not confirmed in the reviewed public material
- Residential cost reference
“Not confirmed” means the directory did not identify a dependable public statement. It does not mean the provider has no policy or option.
Primary verification routes
- California Water Service Company - Bakersfield System (CWS - Bakersfield) public website ↗
Provider-controlled destination used to confirm current customer instructions.
- EPA SDWIS / ECHO lookup (CA1510003) ↗
Search the federal drinking-water database using public water system ID CA1510003.