City of Compton Water Utility Division
City of Compton, Los Angeles County; active PWS CA1910026
Population reference
74,877 people served by active California community water system CA1910026 according to California Drinking Water Watch. The state registry lists 13,161 residential, 1,246 commercial, 139 industrial, and 16 agricultural metered connections; the City's current customer-service page describes approximately 80,000 people and nearly 14,500 connections, so both official figures are retained as a source-date variance.
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
- Monthly. The City mails a utility bill every month, reads the water meter monthly, and bills sewer and trash components on the same utility statement. The printed bill controls the exact generation date and due date; the discontinuation policy defines the regular-bill late-charge trigger as the close of business on the 21st day after the blue regular bill is generated.
- Rate structure
- Monthly fixed meter service charge plus an increasing two-tier volumetric structure measured in HCF/100-cubic-foot billing units, with separate residential/multifamily allocation rules. For Class A customers such as single-family residential, Tier 1 is usage below 20 billing units at $2.67/HCF and Tier 2 is usage above 20 units at $3.09/HCF. Multifamily Class B receives 10 HCF per condominium/apartment in Tier 1 before the higher Tier 2 rate. The published minimum monthly 3/4-inch charge is $30.54, and a $21.17 monthly per-account water-improvement charge is listed. The City page currently displays this adopted schedule as beginning July 1, 2014; customers should verify any subsequent ordinance or account-specific adjustment.
- Residential cost reference
- Using the City's published 3/4-inch minimum charge of $30.54, $21.17 monthly water-improvement charge, Tier 1 rate of $2.67/HCF, and the 10% Utility Users Tax on the water service and usage components, a 5,000-gallon month (about 6.68 HCF) is approximately $72.90 for water before any sewer-improvement charge, trash, taxes on other components, or late fees. A 7,000-gallon month (about 9.36 HCF) is approximately $82.35 under the same assumptions. The City also bills sewer and waste components on the utility statement, so a customer's total mailed bill is higher and premise-specific; the displayed water schedule should be confirmed for 2026 applicability.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- Compton's utility statement includes a sewer-improvement charge based on water usage plus a separate sewer service charge administered by the City. The City's FY 2026–27 sewer report identifies a flat $54 annual residential/small-commercial assessment for parcels averaging less than 10,000 cubic feet of monthly water usage, equivalent to $4.50 per month, with higher sliding charges for larger commercial/industrial usage and exemptions including vacant lots, septic tanks, seniors, and disabled citizens. The utility bill also includes waste-hauling charges. The exact sewer-improvement line and any property-specific sewer assessment appear on the issued statement rather than as a simple percentage of potable-water charges.
- Meter reading
- Compton reads customer water meters and bills monthly. The official meter guide describes a conventional register: read the white numbers, use the sweep hand where one complete revolution represents one cubic foot (7.48 gallons), and watch the low-flow indicator with every indoor and outdoor fixture off to identify a customer-side leak. The City's water-source page identifies eight groundwater wells and three imported-water connections, but the customer materials do not disclose an AMI/AMR vendor, radio interval, hourly transmission, fixed route calendar, or universal automated leak-alert service. Treat the documented customer-facing system as periodic monthly meter reading unless Compton confirms advanced-meter capability for a specific premise.
- New-account deposit
- Compton requires a minimum residential water-service prepayment/security deposit of $200, including fireline and landscape accounts; multi-family, commercial, industrial, and institutional accounts require at least $300. The prepayment is made when opening service, is not refundable until the account is closed, and the City may require a higher amount based on the account. The new-service form accepts cash, money order, cashier's check, Visa debit, Mastercard debit, or Mastercard credit and says no checks are accepted for the opening prepayment. The FAQ states that the deposit is returned upon termination of service; no credit-check waiver or scheduled interim refund is published. A delinquent account can consume the deposit and require new-service conditions.
- Activation or transfer fee
- No separate universal 2026 activation or name-transfer fee is listed on Compton's current new-account page. The applicant must provide identity, contact, employment, property/tenancy, landlord, and emergency-contact information and pay the required $200 residential or $300 multi-family/commercial/industrial/institutional prepayment before the City turns service on. For a previously occupied home, Compton recommends calling at least two days before the desired start date; a brand-new home may need an additional one or two days to create the account. A tenant may establish service with the owner's authorization and remains responsible for future charges; owners remain responsible for qualifying prior balances under the City's rules.
Context, not a score
How documentation coverage compares
This profile
100%
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
7 of 7 fields in this section contain provider-specific public detail in dataset August 1, 2026.
Documented
100%
Primary verification routes
- City of Compton Water Utility Division public website ↗
Provider-controlled destination used to confirm current customer instructions.
- EPA SDWIS / ECHO lookup (CA1910026) ↗
Search the federal drinking-water database using public water system ID CA1910026.