City of Laredo Utilities Department
Laredo and the surrounding City of Laredo municipal service area
Population reference
Approximately 269,515 residents, using the U.S. Census Bureau July 1, 2025 population estimate for Laredo; the municipal utility serves the City's retail water and wastewater customers.
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. Laredo's official payment and bank-draft instructions describe a monthly utility bill, monthly due date, and monthly water-consumption history.
- Rate structure
- Increasing block conservation tiers with a fixed monthly minimum, adjusted annually on October 1. For a standard inside-city residential 5/8-inch or 3/4-inch meter in FY2026, the minimum for up to 2,000 gallons is $14.10; usage above that threshold is priced at $2.76 per 1,000 gallons for 2,001–4,000 gallons, $2.94 for 4,001–10,000, $3.04 for 10,001–20,000, $3.23 for 20,001–30,000, $3.44 for 30,001–40,000, $3.60 for 40,001–50,000, and $7.18 for 50,001 gallons and above. The current ordinance's scheduled rates increase again October 1, 2026; meter size, service class, and outside-city status can change the charge.
- Residential cost reference
- Using the FY2026 inside-city residential schedule and excluding solid waste, stormwater, taxes, and other statement charges, a 5,000-gallon household is approximately $22.56 for water ($14.10 minimum plus 2,000 gallons at $2.76 and 1,000 gallons at $2.94) and approximately $30.12 for wastewater, for a water-and-wastewater subtotal of about $52.68. At 7,000 gallons the comparable subtotal is about $68.76, consisting of roughly $28.44 water and $40.32 wastewater. These are rate-schedule estimates, not a guaranteed final bill.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- Residential wastewater is billed monthly from metered water consumption rather than from a separate residential sewer meter. FY2026 inside-city wastewater uses a $14.82 minimum for up to 2,000 gallons, then $5.07 per 1,000 gallons for 2,001–4,000, $5.16 for 4,001–10,000, $5.43 for 10,001–20,000, and $5.82 for consumption above 20,000 gallons, with the exact schedule varying by account class. The published ordinance describes annual October 1 rate adjustments and does not identify a winter-quarter averaging formula for ordinary Laredo residential accounts; customers should use the metered water quantity shown on the monthly bill and the City's current residential calculator.
- Meter reading
- Laredo's current customer materials support monthly billing and a mobile app that displays historical monthly water consumption, payment history, and bill history. City utility materials also distinguish Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters from Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meters in the meter-charge schedule, confirming a mixed automated-metering environment rather than a purely manual system. The public 2026 pages do not identify one universal vendor, radio protocol, or guaranteed hourly transmission interval; the verified customer-facing cadence is monthly billing with account/app consumption history and AMI/AMR infrastructure depending on the service location.
- New-account deposit
- A deposit is required for each new water account, with the amount determined by the meter size; the current City new-account page does not publish one universal residential dollar amount or a credit-check waiver. The same page identifies a $10.00 service-connection fee and lists typical construction/irrigation packages that include a meter, installation, deposit, and water-availability charge. The municipal ordinance provides for security-deposit reductions or refunds in specified circumstances, including senior-citizen, transfer, and satisfactory-account-history provisions, with eligible credits normally applied to a utility bill; customers should obtain the current meter-size deposit before activation.
- Activation or transfer fee
- $10.00 service-connection fee for a new account and $10.00 for a service transfer. For a transfer, the fee is placed on the first bill at the new address, the customer must submit a new utility application with the old and new service dates, and delinquent balances must be paid before the transfer is processed. Construction, irrigation, and new-meter work have separate meter, tap, water-availability, and installation charges.
Context, not a score
How documentation coverage compares
This profile
100%
overview fields with research notes
Texas
68%
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 Laredo Utilities Department 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.