City of Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) – Dallas Water Utility

Provider briefing

How this utility’s billing works

City of Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) – Dallas Water Utility operates as a municipal department serving Dallas and the City of Dallas Water Utilities retail service territory. 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/tiered residential usage charges plus a meter-size customer charge. For rates effective October 1, 2025, the common 5/8-inch meter has a $5.93 water customer charge and $5.34 wastewater customer charge; residential water volume is $2.17 per 1,000 gallons for 0–4,000 gallons, $4.81 for 4,001–10,000, $7.98 for 10,001–20,000, $11.40 for 20,001–30,000, and $13.20 above 30,000. The bill may also include stormwater, sanitation, and a $3.00 environmental cleanup fee.. Bills are generated monthly. dallas water utilities divides the city into 21 geographic reading areas, one for each working day of the month; the area determines the meter-read, bill-mailing, and due-date timing. water meters are read monthly and bills include water, wastewater, sanitation, stormwater, and other city charges., and a typical residential cost reference is For a typical 5/8-inch residential meter using 5,000–7,000 gallons, the FY2026 schedule produces approximately $56–$77 per month for water plus wastewater before stormwater, sanitation, environmental-cleanup fees, taxes, or processor charges. A full City utility bill is higher because sanitation and stormwater are billed on the same statement; for a representative account, the customer should add the applicable impervious-area stormwater fee, the $3.00 environmental-cleanup fee, and the current residential sanitation 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 volume is based on the lesser of actual current-month water consumption or the winter average. DWU calculates the winter average from water billed in December, January, February, and March, with a 40,000-gallon maximum; if current water use is lower than that average, the lower current use is used. The FY2026 residential sewer volume charge is $6.19 per 1,000 gallons, plus the meter-size wastewater customer charge. This avoids charging sewer treatment for more water than the household’s current or established winter wastewater contribution.

Meter and infrastructure notes

Dallas Water Utilities reads residential and business meters monthly. A trained meter reader uses a handheld computer; the system rejects unusual readings, performs a pre-bill audit against historical usage, and triggers another read when necessary. DWU reports a 99.89% meter-reading accuracy rate on its customer-billing page. The city’s 21 geographic reading areas spread reads across the working days of each month, and occasional inaccessible meters may generate an estimate based on past use that is corrected automatically after an actual read. The reviewed 2026 pages describe handheld monthly AMR-style collection rather than a fully documented two-way AMI deployment.