How to Read Your Water Bill

How to read your water bill: (also available in PDF format)

1.                  Account Number.  This is the identification number for your account.  It identifies you and your property address in our customer billing system.  Please use the number whenever you contact us with questions about your account.

2.                  Service Location.  This identifies the street address served by our water.

3.                  Bar Code.  This is used for computer processing and is scanned to process your payment.

4.                  Date Due.  The Department of Water (DOW) should receive your payment by this date.  All bills are due and payable upon receipt.  Water service may be discontinued for lack of payment, DOW is not responsible for any payment which may be in transit on he due date.  The customer is responsible for notifying the Billing Section if payment was made on or before the deadline.

5.                  Total Amount Due.  Please pay this amount.  It includes the amount of your current bill and any unpaid previous bills, if applicable.

6.                  Payment Stub.  Return this section of the bill with your payment.  Please write your account number on your check.

7.                  Service Period.  According to the area in which you live, the beginning date till the ending date for which the meter reading was taken for your service location.

8.                  Meter Size.  Current size of meter.

9.             Current Reading.  Readings (in gallons) that are taken at the end of each service period.

10.              Previous Reading.  Reading (in gallons) for previous service period.

11.              Consumption.  This shows the thousands of gallons of water used during the service period.

12.              Previous Balance.  This shows the total due from your previous balance.

13.              Payment – Thank you.  This shows you any payment DOW has received since previous bill.

14.              Water Service Charge.  The service charge is a fixed charge designed to recover administrative costs.  Administrative costs are directly associated with serving customers, irrespective of the amount of water use.  Such costs include meter readings, billing, accounting, and collection expenses; as well as cost of maintenance and customer inquiries, complaints and requests for investigations.

15.              Water Usage Charge.  This shows the cost charged for each thousand gallons of water used.

16.              Summary of Charges.  This row of boxes reviews the charges, payments, adjustments, and amount due for your account.

17.              Daily Average Usage.  This bar graph shows your daily water use (in gallons) over each of the past 13 billing periods or 26 months.  The letters and numbers at the bottom of the graph indicate the month and day your meter was read.

18.       Message Area.  We will use this are to print important customer messages.

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