Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water)
Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, Maryland
Population reference
Approximately 1.9 million residents through about 475,000 customer accounts in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties; Maryland’s public-water tracking profile identifies WSSC as serving about 1,900,000 people.
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
- Quarterly for most customers, with bills calculated in thousand-gallon increments over the billing period. WSSC also supports monthly billing, including a current AMI pilot in which selected quarterly customers switch to approximately 26–34-day monthly billing after the final extended quarterly bill. Fees are prorated by exact days in the billing period.
- Rate structure
- Four-tier inclining block structure based on Average Daily Consumption (ADC) for the total customer unit during the billing period. FY27 rates effective July 1, 2026 are per 1,000 gallons: 0–80.9999 gallons/day, water $7.68 and sewer $10.22; 81–165.9999, $8.68 and $11.34; 166–275.9999, $9.99 and $14.25; 276 gallons/day and greater, $11.70 and $18.82. Bills also include fixed Ready-to-Serve charges, the Maryland Bay Restoration Fund fee, and other property-specific charges such as the Front Foot Benefit Charge where applicable.
- Residential cost reference
- For a typical 5/8-inch residential account billed quarterly and using 5,000–7,000 gallons per month, the FY27 consumption falls around 166–233 gallons/day and is primarily in tier 3. A practical estimate is approximately $146–$194 per month before any Front Foot Benefit Charge, taxes or special account charges: this combines FY27 water and sewer usage, the $34.58 quarterly Account Maintenance Fee, the $23.80 quarterly 5/8-inch Infrastructure Investment Fee, and an approximately $14.78 quarterly Bay Restoration Fund charge. Monthly AMI-pilot bills use the same rates and prorate fixed charges by days.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- WSSC calculates both water and sewer usage from the same meter reading: current register reading minus the prior reading gives gallons used, and the billing period’s total gallons divided by its number of days produces ADC. The sewer charge is then applied per 1,000 gallons using the same four ADC tiers but different sewer prices. The state Bay Restoration Fund fee is collected on each bill period and remitted to the Maryland Department of the Environment; CAP-approved customers are exempt. WSSC does not use a universal winter-average sewer formula, although it may estimate a bill when weather, access, route assignment, or staffing prevents an actual reading and later true-up the actual usage.
- Meter reading
- WSSC’s standard system bills quarterly or monthly from physical meter readings, with actual usage calculated as current minus prior register reading. Winter conditions, inaccessible meters, route assignments, and staffing can require an estimated bill based on comparable prior usage, followed by a true-up when an actual reading is obtained. Approximately 6% of meters have drive-by Automated Meter Reading equipment, transmitting by RF to a vehicle roughly every four to six seconds as the vehicle passes. A 2026–spring 2027 AMI pilot covers approximately 2,000 residential customers and 365 public-school sites. Pilot equipment uses Badger Meter technology with an ORION cellular endpoint, transmits up to four times per weekday and once per weekend day, and feeds daily usage/leak alerts to EyeOnWater; selected quarterly customers shift to 26–34-day monthly billing. Full-system AMI deployment remains subject to future Commission approval.
- Activation or transfer fee
- WSSC does not list a universal residential name-transfer fee on the current start/stop page. Service-transfer requests require both a stop-service and start-service form, and the online request may be submitted up to 10 days before the move date; processing generally occurs within 14 days from the request or customer-provided settlement date, whichever is later. If water is off, a Release of Liability is required. A restoration/turn-on event is separately charged $105 for a customer-requested small meter or $275 for a customer-requested large meter under FY27 fees, with higher $155/$455 scheduled-action charges after delinquency; these are not ordinary name-transfer fees.
Context, not a score
How documentation coverage compares
This profile
86%
overview fields with research notes
Maryland
63%
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
- Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water) public website ↗
Provider-controlled destination used to confirm current customer instructions.
- dhs.maryland.gov reference ↗
Public URL preserved in the compiled record. Confirm its publisher, date, and applicability before relying on it.
- EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System ↗
Federal background on public water-system records and their limitations.