City of Odessa Billing and Collection / Utilities Department

Provider briefing

How this utility’s billing works

City of Odessa Billing and Collection / Utilities Department operates as a municipal department serving Odessa and eligible areas inside and outside the city limits in Ector County. 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 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.. Bills are generated 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., and a typical residential cost reference is 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.. 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

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 and infrastructure notes

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.