City of Odessa Billing and Collection / Utilities Department
Odessa and eligible areas inside and outside the city limits in Ector County
Population reference
Approximately 46,000 water customers, serving the City of Odessa population of about 114,000; the City states that its Water Distribution Division delivers water through nearly 800 miles of lines.
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. Odessa states that meters are read once each month at different times depending on the service area and that water is billed by measured thousand-gallon consumption.
- Rate structure
- Increasing block tiers with a fixed minimum charge, a small per-thousand-gallon energy surcharge, and separate inside-city/outside-city multipliers. For a 3/4-inch inside-city residential meter, the published schedule has a $22.94 minimum through 2,000 gallons, then $6.39 per 1,000 gallons from 3,000-10,000 gallons, $7.35 from 11,000-20,000, $7.54 from 21,000-50,000, and $7.71 above 50,000, plus an energy surcharge of $0.1133 per 1,000 gallons. Outside-city rates are 1.5 times the inside-city schedule. Senior/disability residential customers have lower tiers, subject to application and eligibility.
- Residential cost reference
- For an inside-city 3/4-inch residential account using 5,000 gallons, the published water schedule is approximately $42.11 for water plus about $53.27 sewer, $1.85 stormwater, and $23.99 residential trash before sales tax, or roughly $120-$123 per month depending on tax and account-specific charges. At 7,000 gallons the water portion is about $54.89 and the combined planning total is roughly $133-$137 before tax or optional services. Odessa's residential sewer figure is a flat winter-average amount rather than a direct 5,000/7,000-gallon monthly sewer calculation.
- Wastewater and sewer calculation
- Residential accounts for one to three units receive a flat sewer charge based on a 7,000-gallon average. The current public schedule lists $53.27 per month inside the city, with a senior/disability amount of $41.85; the average is calculated from December, January, and February usage, assigned each April 1, and may change annually. New residential accounts use the published 7,000-gallon basis until an applicable average is established. Commercial and multifamily accounts are billed from actual monthly water use. Outside-city sewer rates are 1.5 times inside-city rates, and unmetered accounts have separately published flat amounts.
- Meter reading
- Odessa states that legacy meters are read once monthly, at different times by area, and that the meter is read left to right without counting the final three digits representing ones, tens, and hundreds. A smart-meter replacement project announced in December 2024 is installing an automatic smart-meter reading system for residential and commercial customers, with the City identifying accurate remote billing, continuous-use/leak detection, conservation insight, and custom alerts as benefits. Contractors and Performance Services are performing replacements; the City does not publish a guaranteed hourly transmission interval or a complete 2026 deployment percentage.
- New-account deposit
- Odessa lists a $30 deposit for one home inside city limits, $35 for one home outside city limits, and a $125 renter deposit that can fall to $60 when the renter presents good utility credit. Larger or commercial accounts start at $200 based on past usage. The service agreement allows the City to increase a deposit to an amount equal to two months of billing based on the prior twelve-month history and requires a deposit equal to one-sixth of estimated annual billing after a nonpayment discontinuation. The public page does not give a universal residential refund date or interest rule; customers should confirm account-specific release conditions with Billing and Collection.
- Activation or transfer fee
- The City publishes a $15 new-service fee and a $15 fee when transferring service to a new address. Deposit requirements are separate from these administrative fees. The public pages do not state a different same-day, after-hours, or emergency activation surcharge; meter/tap construction fees are separately scheduled by meter size and service type.
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 Odessa Billing and Collection / Utilities Department public website ↗
Provider-controlled destination used to confirm current customer instructions.
- tdhca.texas.gov reference ↗
Public URL preserved in the compiled record. Confirm its publisher, date, and applicability before relying on it.
- EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System ↗
Federal background on public water-system records and their limitations.