City of Bismarck Utility Billing
Bismarck
Population reference
Approximately 72,417 residents in the queue service-area estimate; the City reports more than 23,000 utility billing customers across water, wastewater, stormwater, lighting, recycling and solid-waste services.
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. Bills are produced on a cycle basis on or around the 10th, 20th and 30th of each month and are due 15 days after the cycle billing date.
- Rate structure
- Increasing block consumption pricing layered on fixed monthly charges and additional municipal service charges. The 2026 single-family schedule bills water by 100-cubic-foot units, with 1 unit equal to 748 gallons; for larger residential lots the published water tiers are $1.80 per unit for units 1-8, $4.93 for 9-16, $6.34 for 17-24 and $8.10 for 25 and above, with the applicable meter and lot table controlling the exact bill.
- Residential cost reference
- The 2026 single-family schedule lists a 5/8-inch water minimum of $10.41, sewer minimum of $11.54, a $0.30 backup charge and stormwater of $1.54 for lots under 8,000 square feet, with water and sewer consumption added by unit. A typical 5,000-7,000 gallon monthly household should generally budget approximately $70-$100 for the City utility bundle before optional or non-water municipal services; the exact amount depends on lot size, meter class, sewer usage and solid-waste/street-light charges.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- Wastewater is metered and billed using water-consumption units rather than a separate residential sewer meter. The 2026 schedule lists sewer at $3.16 per 100-cubic-foot unit for the cited residential table; one unit is 748 gallons. There is no published winter-average formula on the reviewed City billing page, so the record should not imply one.
- Meter reading
- Bismarck uses digital water-meter registers that alternate between cumulative reading and flow rate every six seconds and support customer leak checks. The City offers Water Analytics showing usage by year, month, day and hour with text/email alerts, indicating interval-capable remote data, but the reviewed public page does not state a precise transmission interval or meter-reader route schedule.
- New-account deposit
- No standard residential startup deposit amount or credit-check waiver was published on the reviewed City utility-billing page. The page instead describes service agreements and owner/tenant forms; any account-specific deposit requirement should be confirmed before activation.
- Activation or transfer fee
- The City instructs owners, renters and property managers to submit the applicable service agreement or tenant request before the desired start date. The reviewed 2026 fee table does not list a general activation or transfer fee; separate turn-on/turn-off and delinquent restoration fees apply when the service condition requires them.
Context, not a score
How documentation coverage compares
This profile
100%
overview fields with research notes
North Dakota
55%
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
- City of Bismarck Utility Billing 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.