City of Wichita Public Works & Utilities – Water Utilities

Provider briefing

How this utility’s billing works

City of Wichita Public Works & Utilities – Water Utilities operates as a municipal department serving Wichita and surrounding communities served by the City of Wichita water and sewer systems. 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 meter charge plus increasing block volume rates based on Average Winter Consumption (AWC). For January 1–December 31, 2026, residential inside-city usage is $3.51 per 1,000 gallons through 110% of AWC, $12.26 per 1,000 gallons from 111% to 310% of AWC and for fire-service usage, and $17.93 per 1,000 gallons above 310% of AWC. The 5/8-inch residential inside-city minimum charge is $22.08 per monthly billing period; outside-city residential minimum is $35.35. AWC is calculated from the December, January, February, and March billings, with the ordinance allowing daily adjustment when a billing period is longer or shorter than the normal 28–31 days.. Bills are generated monthly. the city provides monthly water, sewer, and stormwater billing and reports approximately 160,000 meter readings each month., and a typical residential cost reference is For a typical 5/8-inch inside-city residential account using about 5,000–7,000 gallons per month, the 2026 water component is approximately $39.63–$46.65 before sewer, stormwater, taxes, and other account charges, assuming the usage remains in the first AWC block. Adding the 2026 inside-city residential sewer base charge of $12.62 and sewer volume charge of $4.98 per 1,000 gallons produces an indicative combined water-and-sewer range of about $77.15–$94.13, before any stormwater charge and before the account's actual AWC tiering. Actual summer bills can be much higher when consumption moves into the 111%–310% or above-310% blocks.. 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

Wichita sewer service is billed monthly from metered water consumption. Effective January 1–December 31, 2026, the inside-city residential sewer base charge for a 5/8-inch meter is $12.62 per month and the residential volume charge is $4.98 per 1,000 gallons of metered water consumption; outside-city residential rates are $20.22 base plus $7.96 per 1,000 gallons. A flat-rate inside-city sewer charge is $36.84 per month and outside-city flat-rate sewer is $58.92. Industrial customers can incur extra-strength pollutant charges, and separately documented non-city water entering the sewer system is handled under the City's application and measurement rules. The public 2026 ordinance does not advertise a residential winter sewer-average cap comparable to a winter-average billing formula; sewer usage is generally tied to the water meter.

Meter and infrastructure notes

Wichita shifted from walking routes with handheld devices to Automated Meter Reading (AMR) in 2016, allowing meter information to be transmitted to a vehicle as it passes the meter. The City reported 361 routes reading approximately 160,000 water meters monthly in January 2022 and redesigned them to 233 more efficient AMR routes. Current City engineering specifications require electronic read registers compatible with the Wichita system, including ERT/AMR-compatible equipment. This is AMR rather than a published universal hourly AMI network; bills are monthly, and customers can review usage history after registering at link.wichita.gov.