Columbia Water

Provider briefing

How this utility’s billing works

Columbia Water operates as a municipal department serving City of Columbia, major portions of Richland County, portions of Lexington County, and surrounding Midlands communities. 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 Fixed base charge covering the first 3 units, then volumetric tiered charges per unit of 100 cubic feet. One unit equals 748.052 gallons. Rates became effective July 1, 2026. In-city standard residential service uses a 5/8-inch base of $10.37, then $3.72 per unit for units 4–100, $3.54 for units 101–1,000, and $3.36 above 1,000; out-of-city rates are higher. Columbia publishes separate standard-meter and AMI-meter residential schedules.. Bills are generated monthly. columbia water states that all customers receive a water bill each month and that a missing bill does not relieve the customer from paying by the delinquent date., and a typical residential cost reference is For an in-city 5/8-inch residential account using 5,000 gallons (about 6.68 units), the July 2026 schedule yields an illustrative water subtotal of roughly $10.37 + (3.68 × $3.72) = $24.06 and sewer of roughly $10.37 + (6.68 × $5.38) = $46.31, or about $70.37 for water and sewer before the separate in-city stormwater utility fee and any account-specific charges. The calculation assumes a standard meter and does not include partial-unit rounding beyond the city’s billing method.. 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

Sewer includes a fixed connection base fee by meter size/location plus a charge for each unit of water used. Effective July 1, 2026, the in-city 5/8-inch sewer base is $10.37 and the in-city sewer use charge is $5.38 per 100 cubic feet; out-of-city sewer use is $9.18 per unit. Multiple-unit properties receive additional sewer line items based on dwelling/room count and meter size. In-city customers also receive a separate stormwater utility fee.

Meter and infrastructure notes

Columbia Water is implementing advanced metering infrastructure. The current meter-upgrade page states that AMI meters transmit consumption remotely and securely to Columbia Water daily, while the Eye On Water portal provides up-to-the-minute usage information and leak notifications. The utility’s public material also references 15-minute AMI readings in the program description; customers should use the current portal for the actual interval available at their premise. Before AMI, meters were generally read monthly and inaccessible meters could generate estimated bills.