City of San Bernardino Municipal Water Department (SBMWD)

Provider briefing

How this utility’s billing works

City of San Bernardino Municipal Water Department (SBMWD) operates as a municipal department serving City of San Bernardino and nearby SBMWD service-area communities, including the documented outside-city Loma Linda wastewater-treatment customer class. 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 Monthly fixed meter charge plus increasing-block residential commodity tiers and customer-class uniform charges. The published schedule effective July 1, 2025 listed a 5/8-inch fixed meter charge of $23.97, then single-family residential commodity rates of $1.60 per HCF for 0–13 HCF, $2.16 for 14–23 HCF, and $2.73 above 23 HCF. The 2026 Water Board action took effect July 1, 2026 and superseded the earlier schedule; the structure remains fixed charge plus tiered HCF pricing, with drought-stage surcharges that must be separately adopted by the Water Board. At the 2026 rate-change example, a 5/8-inch single-family service using 15 HCF has a combined water-and-sewer bill of $109.52.. Bills are generated monthly. sbmwd’s delinquency page states that all accounts are billed in monthly intervals, and the department’s automatic-payment program deducts the monthly bill approximately 19 days after the billing date. meter readings were historically performed monthly by department meter readers; the department is upgrading to ami while continuing monthly billing., and a typical residential cost reference is Approximately $97–$104 per month for a typical 5/8-inch single-family account using roughly 5,000–7,000 gallons, as an estimate derived from the department’s fixed meter charge, low residential HCF tiers, and the July 1, 2026 rate-change benchmark. SBMWD’s official 2026 example is more precise for 15 HCF (about 11,220 gallons): $109.52 combined water and sewer per month. Actual 5,000–7,000-gallon totals depend on the applicable 2026 rate table, service class, sewer location, and whether the account is inside San Bernardino or in the outside-city Loma Linda treatment class.. 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

SBMWD charges a fixed monthly wastewater service charge by customer class and location. For the July 1, 2025 schedule, an inside-city single-family account had a $52.90 monthly wastewater charge; an outside-city Loma Linda single-family account had a $29.39 treatment-only charge. A separate wastewater commodity charge is billed per HCF of water use for multi-family accounts with four or more units, mobile-home parks, and non-residential classes, with low-, medium-, or high-strength rates. Single-family residential domestic-strength wastewater commodity entries are listed as not publicly stated, so the ordinary residential bill is principally a fixed sewer charge plus the water meter and commodity charges; no winter sewer-average formula is published for that class.

Meter and infrastructure notes

SBMWD historically read meters monthly with department meter readers and continues monthly billing. It is upgrading meters to Advanced Metering Infrastructure using smart meters and a cellular communications network that sends continuous consumption data, enabling earlier unusual-use alerts by email, text, or phone. The AMI meters do not remotely shut off or restrict water. SBMWD says the customer portal for daily-use monitoring and alerts is being launched, and customers should understand that AMI identifies usage patterns rather than the leak location. The 2023 Water Board procurement records identify Badger meters and Itron AMI communications/network hardware and head-end software, with larger meters in some cases using ultrasonic technology.