Saint Paul Regional Water Services (SPRWS)

Provider briefing

How this utility’s billing works

Saint Paul Regional Water Services (SPRWS) operates as a public water authority serving Saint Paul, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Maplewood, Mendota Heights, West Saint Paul, and additional wholesale/retail communities including Lilydale, Mendota, Sunfish Lake, South Saint Paul, Roseville, and Newport. 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 Seasonal increasing/decreasing usage rates with a meter-size base fee, a water-main replacement surcharge in six core communities, and a Saint Paul right-of-way recovery fee. For accounts with meters one inch or smaller in Saint Paul and the designated core communities, 2026 usage is $4.95 per 748-gallon billing unit in winter and $5.11 in summer; the other municipalities use $5.94 winter and $6.13 summer. A billing unit is 100 cubic feet, approximately 748 gallons. Saint Paul also adds $0.30 per unit for main replacement and a quarterly right-of-way fee.. Bills are generated quarterly for the typical residential account, with the bill showing a 91-day billing cycle; the due date is 15 days after the billing date. sprws also supports monthly account arrangements in some contexts, including the minnesota safe drinking water fee's monthly presentation, but quarterly billing is the standard household pattern described by the utility., and a typical residential cost reference is For a Saint Paul 5,000-gallon-per-month customer with a meter under one inch, approximately 20,052 gallons or 26.8 units per quarter, the 2026 water-only charge is about $175.92 per winter quarter or $180.21 per summer quarter, averaging roughly $58.64–$60.07 per month after the $26.91 quarterly base fee, $0.30-per-unit main-replacement surcharge, $4.50 quarterly Saint Paul right-of-way fee, and $3.81 quarterly Safe Drinking Water fee. SPRWS does not set a uniform wastewater rate; sanitary sewer and other municipal charges appear on the bill according to the city where the property is located, so a complete water-plus-sewer estimate must be calculated from that municipality's rates.. 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

SPRWS's bill-payment page states that the water bill consists of water and sewer usage charges measured in 748-gallon units, but it also states that sewer, stormwater, recycling, street-lighting, and related charges are determined by the individual municipality. SPRWS does not publish one regional sewer formula or a universal winter-average rule for all communities. Customers in Saint Paul and the other served cities must use the sewer line and contact information on their bill or the applicable municipal rate schedule; the safe regional statement is that sanitary sewer is commonly tied to metered water units, while the exact base fee, seasonal adjustment, winter averaging, and non-sewer surcharges vary by municipality.

Meter and infrastructure notes

The meter is normally inside the property, about one foot above the basement floor, or in a crawl space, floor pit, or utility room; it is not outside. SPRWS's instructions tell customers to read all nine numbers left-to-right like a car odometer. The utility uses conventional meters and touchpad readers, with a $12 meter-reading fee for touchpad reads; its public material does not establish universal hourly AMI transmission. Standard residential billing is quarterly, with current usage compared with the same billing period a year earlier; Meter Operations at 651-266-6850 handles meter reading and repair.