Moulton Niguel Water District
Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, Dana Point, and San Juan Capistrano service areas
Population reference
170,236 residents served by active CWS CA3010073, with 49,471 residential meter connections listed by California Drinking Water Watch; the District’s current operations page describes a service area of approximately 37 square miles across six South Orange County communities.
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 or another interval stated on the account bill; current district payment and rate materials describe monthly bills, monthly service charges, and monthly water budgets.
- Rate structure
- Personalized increasing-block water-budget rates. Each residential account receives a monthly indoor budget based on 55 gallons per person per day and an outdoor budget based on irrigable area, localized daily evapotranspiration, and a landscaping factor. Indoor budget usage is Tier 1, outdoor budget usage is Tier 2, and usage above the total budget is charged through higher Tiers 3, 4, and 5. A fixed monthly service charge is based on meter size, and the District may pass through certain wholesale-water cost increases subject to its adopted rules.
- Residential cost reference
- Approximately $82-$90 per month for a simplified 2026 single-family illustration with a 5/8-inch meter, four occupants, no separately quantified outdoor allocation, and 5,000-7,000 gallons monthly. The calculation uses the $11.13 monthly water service charge, 2026 Tier 1 water rate of $2.76 per billing unit, Tier 2 rate of $3.70 when the 7,000-gallon example exceeds the four-person indoor budget, and wastewater of $28.88 monthly plus $5.89 per person. Actual bills vary materially with the parcel’s irrigable area, local ET, household count, meter size, recycled-water service, and assigned budget.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- For 2026 single-family residential service, wastewater has a flat $28.88 monthly service charge plus $5.89 per person per month. The District states that the household count drives the residential wastewater volumetric component, rather than a winter-average percentage of potable-water intake. MNWD operates two wastewater treatment plants for approximately 85% of District wastewater and contracts treatment/disposal of the balance through neighboring agencies, with South Orange County Wastewater Authority costs passed through under the adopted rate framework.
- Meter reading
- MNWD completed a systemwide smart-meter upgrade and its MyWater portal displays monthly, daily, and hourly consumption data plus leak alerts. The District’s water-budget calculations use meter-read dates, daily localized ET data from 110 microclimate zones, and monthly billing cycles. The public materials do not identify the AMI hardware vendor or a universal calendar date for each route, but the hourly portal data confirms advanced metering and interval usage visibility rather than solely manual monthly reads.
- Activation or transfer fee
- A non-refundable $15 service-establishment fee is applied to the first bill. MNWD requires at least one business day’s notice, performs starts and stops Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. except holidays, and does not transfer service between addresses; a move requires separate stop and start requests. The online MyWater portal can submit turn-on/turn-off requests.
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
- Moulton Niguel Water District public website ↗
Provider-controlled destination used to confirm current customer instructions.
- 211oc.org reference ↗
Public URL preserved in the compiled record. Confirm its publisher, date, and applicability before relying on it.
- EPA SDWIS / ECHO lookup (CA3010073) ↗
Search the federal drinking-water database using public water system ID CA3010073.