District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water)
Washington, District of Columbia
Population reference
DC Water provides retail water and wastewater service to more than 700,000 District residents and approximately 27 million annual visitors. Its Blue Plains system also treats wastewater for approximately 1.8 million people in neighboring Maryland and Virginia jurisdictions; the retail population estimate here is the District customer base.
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
- Generally monthly billing, with the bill's specific service period shown on each invoice. DC Water's payment terms and meter guidance describe monthly invoices, monthly usage histories, and monthly recurring EFT/autopay; an occasional bill can cover a different number of days or use an estimated reading when access or transmission is unavailable.
- Rate structure
- Increasing block water rate plus a uniform sewer rate and several fixed or property-based charges. For current FY2026 rates effective October 1, 2025, residential water is $5.78 per CCF for 0-4 CCF and $7.60 per CCF above 4 CCF; sewer is $12.52 per CCF. The bill also includes a 5/8-inch customer metering fee of $7.75, a $6.30 water-system-replacement fee, a Clean Rivers Impervious Area Charge of $24.23 per ERU, a $2.67 District stormwater fee, and District PILOT/ROW pass-through charges. Proposed FY2027 rates beginning October 1, 2026 are not treated as current until the Board vote scheduled for September 3, 2026.
- Residential cost reference
- For a 5/8-inch residential account using approximately 5,000-7,000 gallons per month (about 6.7-9.4 CCF), the current FY2026 schedule produces an estimated total bill of roughly $173-$226 per month before any account-specific adjustment, assistance credit, or unusual charge. The official FY2026 typical-bill benchmark is $147.16 at 5.42 CCF/4,054 gallons, including DC Water rates, CRIAC, metering, replacement, stormwater, PILOT, and ROW charges. The higher 5,000-7,000-gallon estimate reflects the increasing water block and additional sewer usage.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- Sewer service is billed from metered water consumption at the applicable residential sewer rate; DC Water does not publish a standard winter-average sewer formula for ordinary District residential accounts in the reviewed current materials. The bill separately includes the Clean Rivers Impervious Area Charge, calculated from impervious property area converted into Equivalent Residential Units, and the District stormwater fee. A property's meter size affects the customer metering and water-system-replacement fees, while CAP assistance can waive or reduce some of those fixed components.
- Meter reading
- DC Water has advanced meter-reading infrastructure and My DC Water exposes AMR history, daily usage, leak alerts, and high-usage notification preferences. The utility's current meter guidance says usage is transmitted electronically and bills are normally based on meter data; where the meter does not transmit or the utility cannot access it, DC Water may estimate usage and can charge a manual-meter-read fee after notice. The residential manual-read fee is $25 per month per meter under the FY2026 schedule. Routine bills are monthly, while the exact read date and transmission interval are premise-specific; customers can submit an interior meter reading to Customer Service when requested.
- New-account deposit
- The current start/stop pages do not publish a routine residential security-deposit amount, credit-check waiver, or on-time refund schedule. Property owners remain ultimately responsible for water and sewer charges, and title agents submit ownership-change documents through DC Water's third-party portal; tenants are added with owner or management approval. The miscellaneous-fee schedule does list a $2,000 deposit for a 3-inch fire-hydrant meter and larger special-use deposits, but those are construction/temporary-service deposits rather than ordinary residential account deposits.
- Activation or transfer fee
- DC Water's current miscellaneous-fee schedule lists a $60 new customer account initiation fee. Ownership changes are handled by the title agent through the third-party portal, with settlement documents required within five days of closing; the first or final bill is expected within 30 days. Routine tenant additions and management-company changes are handled through the owner or manager profile, so customers should confirm whether the $60 initiation fee applies to a particular ownership transfer or only a new retail account.
Context, not a score
How documentation coverage compares
This profile
100%
overview fields with research notes
District of Columbia
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
- District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) 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.