City of Fresno Department of Public Utilities – Water Division / Utilities Billing and Collection Division
City of Fresno and numerous county-island areas within the City’s approximately 114-square-mile water service area
Population reference
Approximately 545,466 people (California active CWS record, PWS ID CA1010007; the City’s water division reports more than 142,200 residential, commercial, and industrial customer accounts)
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. Fresno divides customers into 28 geographic billing cycles with approximately 5,000 customers billed in each cycle. A billing period is based on the meter-reading date and may not align with calendar-month boundaries.
- Rate structure
- Uniform volumetric usage rate plus a fixed meter-size monthly service charge; the July 1, 2026 Master Fee Schedule does not use residential increasing-block tiers. A domestic 3/4-inch-or-smaller meter has a $13.50 monthly service charge, and each 100 cubic feet/HCF is $1.74, approximately $2.33 per 1,000 gallons. The same $1.74/HCF quantity rate applies to all customer classes, while irrigation-meter service charges differ. A $2.00 monthly backflow-prevention program fee applies where an assembly is covered. Qualified single-family residential accounts can receive up to a $5 monthly Water Affordability Credit.
- Residential cost reference
- Approximately $51–$56 per month for City water plus the standard single-family sewer charge at 5,000–7,000 gallons, before solid waste, community sanitation, taxes, special fees, or unusual meter charges. At 5,000 gallons, the water estimate is about $25.15 ($13.50 service plus $11.65 consumption) and the standard single-family sewer charge is $25.75, for about $50.90. At 7,000 gallons, water is about $29.81 and water-plus-sewer about $55.56. A typical complete City utility bill can be approximately $96–$101 after adding the $38.70 basic residential solid-waste charge and $6.23 community-sanitation charge; account combinations vary. A qualifying senior sewer customer pays $23.16/month instead of $25.75.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- Fresno bills residential sewer/wastewater as a flat monthly rate based on the number of dwelling units rather than a winter-average or clean-water-consumption formula. The July 1, 2026 Master Fee Schedule lists $25.75 per month for a single-family unit, made up of $8.80 capital and $16.95 operations and maintenance; a senior citizen meeting the City’s conditions pays $23.16/month, a 10% discount. Multifamily service is $25.75 for the first unit and $17.29 for each additional unit per month. Commercial and industrial wastewater is different: charges can use metered potable water or sewage flow plus BOD and TSS pound charges, with flow rates and strength classifications in the Master Fee Schedule. Water and sewer appear on the combined Fresno utility bill when both services are provided.
- Meter reading
- Fresno bills monthly from water-meter consumption, with 28 geographic billing cycles and meter-reading dates that do not necessarily align to calendar months. The City reports automated meter endpoints installed at every residence, allowing the Water Division to monitor usage hourly; customers can view hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly consumption in the EyeOnWater portal and set email/text leak alerts, including alerts for continuous use over a 24-hour period. The billing statement still uses the meter data for the customer’s billing period, while EyeOnWater’s calendar-month display may not exactly match the bill’s read dates. The City maintains the meter and public-side service; the property owner maintains the private side after the meter.
- New-account deposit
- A new Fresno customer may be required to provide a deposit, rental agreement, and personal information; the current public City pages do not disclose one universal residential deposit amount or a published credit-check waiver. The City says a customer should apply online or call 559-621-6888, and a new turn-on is normally scheduled for the next business day after processing. A tenant can establish credit under the shutoff policy with proof of residence and prompt rent/credit payments for the prior year. Equipment deposits listed in the Master Fee Schedule, such as fire-hydrant meter deposits, are temporary-service deposits and do not describe an ordinary household water-account deposit.
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
- Activation or transfer fee
“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
- City of Fresno Department of Public Utilities – Water Division / Utilities Billing and Collection Division public website ↗
Provider-controlled destination used to confirm current customer instructions.
- EPA SDWIS / ECHO lookup (CA1010007) ↗
Search the federal drinking-water database using public water system ID CA1010007.