Long Beach Utilities Department
City of Long Beach and the Long Beach Utilities Department potable-water, sewer, and reclaimed-water service territory in Los Angeles County
Population reference
466,772 residents in the active California Drinking Water Watch operating-period record for CWS CA1910065, with approximately 81,194 residential and 6,677 commercial metered connections. The system is primarily supplied by Long Beach groundwater and treated Metropolitan Water District connections.
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’s delinquent-bill policy describes monthly regular bills, a following-month delinquent bill, and monthly meter-based billing; water and sewer charges use the number of days in the billing period multiplied by the applicable daily service rate plus volumetric usage.
- Rate structure
- Increasing block tiers based on monthly usage in billing units, where one CCF equals 100 cubic feet or 748 gallons. FY 2026 rates effective October 1, 2025 are: Tier IA $0.000 for the first 6 units for customers granted a Utility Users’ Tax exemption; Tier IB $3.474/CCF for the first 6 units for customers without the exemption; Tier II $6.652/CCF for the next 7 units; and Tier III $9.706/CCF over 13 units. A 5/8- or 3/4-inch meter also carries a $0.993 daily water service charge. FY 2027 values shown on the current page are proposed/effective October 1, 2026 and should not be substituted for the July 2026 FY 2026 schedule.
- Residential cost reference
- At approximately 6.7 CCF (5,000 gallons) in a normal non-exempt single-family account, the FY 2026 water charge is roughly $55 before any other utility services: about $29.79 for 30 days of the 5/8- or 3/4-inch daily service charge, approximately $20.84 for the first 6 CCF at $3.474, and approximately $4.66 for the remaining 0.7 CCF in Tier II. The corresponding sewer estimate is about $12 at the $0.300 daily 5/8- or 3/4-inch sewer charge plus $0.475/CCF, for a rough combined water-and-sewer total near $67 per month. Actual bills vary with read-period days, UUTE qualification, household usage, meter size, and refuse or gas services on the same City account.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- For customers connected to the City sanitary sewer, the sewer charge is calculated from the customer’s water-service size and volumetric water consumption. FY 2026 sewer rates effective October 1, 2025 show $0.475 per 100 cubic feet and a $0.300 daily service charge for a 5/8- or 3/4-inch meter. The current City bill explanation does not describe a winter-average or fixed percentage formula; it states that sewer usage is based on the volumetric amount of water used, with the applicable daily service charge added.
- Meter reading
- Long Beach Utilities is implementing a citywide smart-meter upgrade. The smart meter transmits water usage and other billing information through an encrypted secure radio-frequency network to the Utility office, and the MyUtilityPortal launch materials advertise real-time hourly utility-usage data and proactive usage alerts. Residential bills are generated monthly and the FY 2026 rate ordinance describes monthly meter readings. Customers can opt out of the water smart-meter program under the published rules, which list a $75 initial opt-out fee and $25 ongoing monthly fee, or $10 additional monthly fee when already paying the gas smart-meter opt-out charge.
- New-account deposit
- A new-account deposit is not one fixed public amount; the MyUtilityPortal start-service workflow states that a deposit may be added based on the services activated and displays the total when the application is complete. In tenant takeover situations after owner-billed delinquency, the City policy requires a deposit of two times the average bill before the tenant assumes service. A customer with satisfactorily established credit on an existing City utility account during the prior 12 months may have the deposit requirement waived; otherwise deposits are held for 12 months and credited when bills have been paid promptly.
- Activation or transfer fee
- No universal 2026 water-only activation or ordinary transfer fee is published on the current Long Beach customer portal. The start-service page identifies a $35 gas service-establishment fee, but that fee is for gas and should not be misrepresented as a water activation charge. Physical water-service installation, meter reset, capacity, and development fees are separate construction charges; ordinary residential applicants should confirm any property-specific water charge with 562-570-5700.
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
- Long Beach Utilities Department public website ↗
Provider-controlled destination used to confirm current customer instructions.
- EPA SDWIS / ECHO lookup (CA1910065) ↗
Search the federal drinking-water database using public water system ID CA1910065.