City of Santa Barbara Water Resources - Utility Billing
City of Santa Barbara
Population reference
99,323 people (EPA SDWA active CWS queue estimate)
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 water and sewer billing; the adopted rate tables identify monthly allotments and monthly service charges.
- Rate structure
- Increasing block tiers based on monthly water use measured in hundred cubic feet, where 1 HCF equals 748 gallons. For FY2026, single-family residential water is $6.06 per first 4 HCF, $16.92 per next 12 HCF and $38.56 per additional HCF, plus a meter-size monthly service charge; the City also applies a 6% utility users tax to metered water and monthly water charges.
- Residential cost reference
- Using the FY2026 adopted single-family schedule and a 5/8-inch meter, 7,000 gallons is about 9.36 HCF: $44.01 monthly service charge plus roughly $24.24 for the first 4 HCF and $90.65 for the next 5.36 HCF, or about $158.90 for water before the 6% utility users tax. Sewer at the residential $35.85 monthly charge plus $5.43 per HCF up to 8 HCF adds about $86.69, producing an estimated combined water/sewer total near $255.13 before other taxes or account-specific adjustments. This is a schedule-based estimate, not a City-issued average bill.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- Single-family sewer is billed monthly at $35.85 plus $5.43 per HCF, capped at 8 HCF per month in the published residential table. Water allotments are based on average monthly consumption during the most recent January-June period, adjusted for the maximum billing-cycle days; the reviewed City schedule does not describe a winter sewer averaging formula for standard residential accounts.
- Meter reading
- The City identifies an Automated Metering Infrastructure contact and the WaterSmart portal supplies consumption-management and leak-alert tools, indicating AMI-supported customer data. The reviewed public pages do not state a universal transmission interval or fixed route-reading date for every account.
- Activation or transfer fee
- Service initiation is $65. The administrative account transfer fee is $21.00; the reviewed page does not state a separate waiver or landlord-transfer exception.
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
- New-account deposit
“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 Santa Barbara Water Resources - Utility Billing public website ↗
Provider-controlled destination used to confirm current customer instructions.
- EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System ↗
Federal background on public water-system records and their limitations.