Lee County Utilities – Water, Wastewater and Reclaimed Water

Provider briefing

How this utility’s billing works

Lee County Utilities – Water, Wastewater and Reclaimed Water operates as a public water authority serving Unincorporated Lee County service areas outside Cape Coral, Fort Myers city limits, Lehigh Acres, Naples, Bonita Springs, Sanibel/Captiva, and Gateway. Customers should use the provider’s current account-specific bill and official customer-service instructions as the final authority for deadlines, balances, and service requests.

The published water-rate framework is described as Increasing block conservation rate structure with fixed administrative/base charges, four residential usage blocks, and a wellfield conservation surcharge after the initial block. For the July 1, 2026 schedule, single-family water rates are $4.45 per 1,000 gallons for 0–6,000, $5.56 for 6,001–12,000, $6.68 for 12,001–18,000, and $8.90 above 18,000. The residential water base is $12.44 plus a $4.68 administrative charge per bill; the wellfield surcharge is $0.68 per ERU when the first block is exceeded.. Bills are generated monthly. lee county utilities generates and distributes invoices monthly, reads each metered service location once per month, and bills by cycle, route, and sequence., and a typical residential cost reference is For a typical single-family account using 5,000 gallons in the July 2026 schedule, the published components are approximately $4.68 administrative charge + $12.44 water base + $21.00 water usage + $4.32 sewer administration + $21.44 sewer base + $36.85 sewer usage = about $106.73 per month before reclaimed water, special surcharges, taxes, or account-specific fees. Wastewater usage above 10,000 gallons per residential living unit is not billed the metered wastewater user charge.. These descriptions are useful planning benchmarks; actual charges can change with meter size, usage, sewer averaging, local taxes, drought stages, or account-specific fees.

Wastewater and sewer calculation

Residential wastewater is billed from monthly metered water consumption, with a July 2026 single-family sewer base of $21.44 plus $7.37 per 1,000 gallons. Lee County does not charge the residential wastewater user component for metered water use above 10,000 gallons per living unit; unmetered accounts use the approved unmetered user charge. The County also provides a deduct-meter route for qualifying cooling-tower, food-production, or water-resale customers whose water does not return to the wastewater system.

Meter and infrastructure notes

LCU reads each metered location manually or electronically once per month by billing cycle, route, and sequence. If the regular reading fails, a second attempt is made; if it still cannot be obtained because of weather, inaccessibility, or equipment issues, the County estimates the bill using the prior 12 months or the comparable prior-year period and adjusts it when an actual read returns. The operations manual also recognizes AMI meters and remote disconnect capability.