The US Water Utility & Billing Directory — Every Bill, Portal, Phone Number, and Address, Manually Verified
What every US water utility is, who runs it, how to pay your bill, how to start or stop service, how to read your bill, what your Consumer Confidence Report tells you, how to dispute a charge, how to report a leak or water-quality concern, and where to get financial assistance when bills are unaffordable. Municipal water and sewer utilities, regional water authorities, public utility districts (PUDs), rural water cooperatives, and investor-owned water utilities (IOUs) across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories. Every entry includes the utility’s name, billing address, payment phone number, online portal URL, emergency / leak reporting line, service start-stop procedure, billing cycle, rate schedule, and the regulator that oversees rates and quality.
Life-threatening emergency (gas smell, electrical hazard from flooding, structural collapse, injury): call 911 first.
Water main break, no water service, flooding from a city main, sewer back-up into your home: call your water utility’s emergency line (printed on your bill; staffed 24/7 for most utilities). Many sewer back-ups are caused by a city-side blockage and the utility will respond.
Suspected contamination, unusual color, odor, or taste: call your water utility AND your state drinking water primacy agency. If you suspect someone has ingested a contaminant, call Poison Control on 1-800-222-1222 (24/7, free, confidential).
Routine billing questions, account access, autopay setup: your utility’s customer service line during business hours.
uswaterbillguide.org/ is an editorial directory. We publish administrative details about US water utilities — office address, billing phone, payment portal URL, emergency line, service procedure, regulator. We do not provide water service. We do not send bills. We do not accept payments. We do not have access to your account. For your bill, your account, your service, your CCR, or anything related to your specific water service, contact your utility directly.
What This Site Covers
US water utilities take many forms. We cover the structure of each, with utility-level detail on:
Municipal water utilities
The most common US water utility — owned and operated by a city, town, county, or village government. Rates are set by the local governing body, not by a state PUC.
Regional water authorities
Multi-jurisdiction water authorities that wholesale or retail water across multiple cities or counties. Often created by state-enabling statute.
Public Utility Districts (PUDs)
Special-purpose local government bodies, common in the Pacific Northwest and other regions. Elected commissioners; rates set by the district board.
Rural water cooperatives
Member-owned water cooperatives, common in rural America. Many were established under federal rural-water programs.
Investor-owned utilities (IOUs)
Private, for-profit water utilities — Aqua America (Essential Utilities), American Water (Aqua), SJW, California Water Service, and many regional IOUs. Rates set by the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) or Public Service Commission (PSC).
Sewer / wastewater utilities
Often the same utility as water (combined water/sewer bill), sometimes separate. May include stormwater fees and (in some communities) a separate MS4 fee.
Bill structure & rate categories
Fixed charge plus volumetric charge (often tiered), sewer charge tied to water consumption, stormwater fee tied to impervious area, taxes / franchise fees, late fees.
Utility information
For every utility we cover: name, billing office address, payment phone, online portal URL, emergency line, service start/stop procedure, rate schedule reference, regulator, latest Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) link.
How US Water Regulation Is Structured
The United States has a layered regulatory framework for drinking water and wastewater. Different agencies regulate quality, rates, billing practices, and customer protections:
| Layer | Agency | What it regulates |
|---|---|---|
| Federal — drinking water quality | US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), 42 U.S.C. § 300f et seq.; National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWR); Lead and Copper Rule (LCR / LCRR / LCRI); PFAS NPDWR (April 2024) |
| Federal — wastewater | EPA | Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.; NPDES permits; pretreatment standards |
| State — drinking water (primacy) | State Department of Health, EPA, or Environment | SDWA enforcement, delegated to 49 states + Navajo Nation by EPA; Wyoming and DC are exceptions |
| State — rates (IOUs only) | State Public Utility Commission (PUC) / Public Service Commission (PSC) | Rate cases for investor-owned utilities; bill complaint resolution |
| Local — rates (municipal/PUD) | City council, county board, or PUD commission | Sets rates for municipal and special-district utilities |
| Federal — financial assistance | US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) — federal water-bill assistance, administered through state agencies |
| Federal — consumer protection | FTC, CFPB | Federal Trade Commission Act § 5 (unfair / deceptive practices); CFPB for utility-related credit and debt collection |
Customer protections (deposit rules, shut-off rules, payment plan rules, weather moratoria) are set primarily at the state and local level, with substantial variation. Investor-owned utilities are subject to PUC rules; municipal and PUD utilities are subject to their own local ordinances and (in some states) state minimum-protection laws. Some states (California, New Jersey, Massachusetts) have winter / heat shut-off moratoria for residential customers; others do not.
What Sets uswaterbillguide.org/ Apart — The Manual-Verification Standard
Most online “water utility” listings are populated by automated feeds that go stale within weeks. Utility telephone numbers change, billing portals migrate to new vendors, rates are adjusted at the start of each fiscal year, autopay enrollment URLs change, late-fee policies are updated, and customer service hours shift. National aggregators rarely reflect these changes in real time, and some still link to billing portals that were sunset years ago.
Every US water utility on uswaterbillguide.org/ is verified by a human editor against the utility's own published page. We do not auto-scrape EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), state primacy agency databases, or PUC sites. Every utility URL is human-clicked before publication. Every payment portal is verified by loading the login page (we do not submit credentials, of course, but we verify the page loads, displays the utility's branding, and is current).
Every utility URL clicked. A human editor opens the utility’s main page, billing portal, autopay enrollment page, and CCR page before publication. Every emergency line dial-tested on a quarterly cycle (we confirm the line answers and routes correctly — we do not generate a false emergency report). Every billing address cross-checked against USPS data. Every regulator attribution verified against the state primacy agency (for SDWA matters) and the state PUC (for IOU rate matters).
What You Will Find on Each Utility Page
- Utility name and PWS ID (the EPA Public Water System Identification Number, format like NY1234567)
- Service area description — which cities, counties, ZIP codes are served
- Billing office address and embedded map — with a separate “directions” link
- Customer service phone — with hours of operation
- Emergency / leak reporting line — usually 24/7, dial-tested quarterly
- Online payment portal URL — with a note on which payment processor the utility uses (Paymentus, InvoiceCloud, Tyler, MUNIS, etc.)
- Autopay enrollment URL — and whether autopay is via the utility portal or a separate ACH form
- Payment methods accepted — ACH, credit card (and any convenience fee), check, money order, in-person, mail
- Billing cycle — monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly
- Rate schedule reference — link to the current rate schedule or ordinance
- Regulator — state primacy agency for quality, PUC/PSC for IOU rates, or local governing body for municipal/PUD rates
- Latest Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) — the annual water-quality report, with a direct link
- Service start / stop procedure — what you need to bring or upload, deposit policy, application fee
- Late-fee policy and shut-off rules
- Income-qualified assistance programs — including LIHWAP eligibility, utility hardship programs, and any state weather moratoria
- Lead service line inventory status — whether the utility has published its LCRR-mandated service line inventory
- Backflow prevention / cross-connection control — if the utility requires annual testing
- Accessibility — ADA-compliant office, hearing-impaired TTY/relay, language services
How We Find and Verify — The Eight-Step Process
- Identify the right authoritative source. The utility’s own published website (primary), EPA SDWIS (for the PWS ID), the state primacy agency, and (for IOUs) the state PUC docket page.
- Verify the utility URL is live. A human editor clicks every link before publication, including the billing portal and CCR.
- Cross-check the billing address against USPS data and the utility’s own contact page.
- Verify the regulator attribution. State primacy agency for SDWA; state PUC for IOU rates; local governing body for municipal/PUD rates. Multiple regulators apply to most utilities.
- Verify CCR publication and link. The CCR is required annually by the SDWA; we link to the most recent published edition.
- Verify the lead service line inventory status against the utility’s LCRR-mandated public inventory (where applicable).
- Dial-test the customer service and emergency lines. Quarterly cycle. We confirm the line answers and routes correctly without generating any false emergency call.
- Editor sign-off. A second editor reviews end-to-end, including a fresh check on the “this is not the utility” notice, the 911 / Poison Control framework, and the FCRA / state privacy disclosures.
Your Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) — an Annual Right Under the SDWA
Under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and the Consumer Confidence Report Rule (40 CFR Part 141 Subpart O), every community water system in the United States is required to deliver an annual CCR to its customers by July 1 of each year (the CCR covers the prior calendar year). The CCR must include:
- The source(s) of the system’s drinking water (groundwater, surface water, purchased, etc.)
- A summary of each regulated contaminant detected, its level, the EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) and MCL Goal (MCLG), and the likely source
- Information about cryptosporidium, radon, and other contaminants for which monitoring is required
- Information about any violations of NPDWR during the reporting year and corrective actions
- Information on lead in drinking water and how to reduce exposure
- Contact information for additional questions
Since 2023, EPA has permitted electronic delivery of the CCR, and many utilities have moved to email or portal-based delivery. The CCR is also called the “Annual Drinking Water Quality Report” by some utilities. Each utility page on this site links to the most recent CCR.
FCRA & Tenant-Screening Carve-Out — Critical
Water-utility account history (payment history, collections, deposits) can end up in consumer reports compiled by Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) and is used in tenant screening, utility deposit decisions, and (occasionally) credit decisions. uswaterbillguide.org/ is not a Consumer Reporting Agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. We do not compile, sell, or furnish consumer reports. We do not have account-level information about any individual. Our directory describes utility-level administrative information (utility name, address, phone, portal URL, regulator). Do not use this site for any “permissible purpose” under FCRA § 604 — not for credit decisions, not for tenant screening, not for employment decisions, not for utility-service decisions, not for insurance underwriting. Permissible-purpose decisions must be made on consumer reports furnished by FCRA-regulated CRAs, with the disclosures and adverse-action notices that FCRA requires.
Financial Assistance — LIHWAP and State Programs
The federal Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), established by Congress in 2020 and administered by the US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF), provides federal financial assistance for drinking water and wastewater bills for income-qualified households. LIHWAP is administered through state, tribal, and territorial grantees — check your state’s LIHWAP page (often through the state’s LIHEAP energy-assistance agency).
Most utilities also operate their own customer hardship programs — bill discounts for low-income or senior customers, payment plans, hardship-driven late-fee waivers. Many states have additional protections: California’s CARE program, New Jersey’s LIHWAP companion programs, Pennsylvania’s Customer Assistance Programs (CAP). We link to assistance programs on each utility’s page where the utility publishes them.
What This Site Is For
uswaterbillguide.org/ is the plain-English, structurally complete reference for finding, understanding, and contacting US water utilities. We are completely independent. We are not affiliated with the EPA, any state primacy agency, any state Public Utility Commission, the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the National Rural Water Association (NRWA), the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA), or any specific water utility, holding company, or billing technology vendor. We do not provide water service. We do not send bills. We do not accept payments. We do not provide legal advice. We do not perform any service that requires utility credentials or a license.
What This Site Is Not For
- Not for paying your bill. Use your utility’s own payment portal or call the utility’s payment line.
- Not for emergencies. For life-threatening emergencies call 911. For water emergencies call your utility’s 24/7 line. For ingestion concerns call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
- Not for getting your account number. Your account number is on your utility bill or available by calling your utility’s customer service line.
- Not for credit decisions, tenant screening, utility deposit decisions, or any FCRA-permissible-purpose decision. Not a Consumer Reporting Agency.
- Not for legal, financial, tax, or insurance advice. Consult a licensed professional in your state.
- Not for reading your meter. Your utility reads meters and posts consumption to your bill; some utilities also expose consumption via a customer portal (Aclara, Sensus, Itron, Badger Beacon, etc.).
- Not the EPA. EPA enforcement of the SDWA is at epa.gov/sdwa; state primacy enforcement is at your state primacy agency.
Corrections and Feedback
US water utilities change — billing-portal vendors migrate (we have tracked InvoiceCloud, Paymentus, Tyler MUNIS, and dozens of smaller vendor changes), customer service phone numbers change, rate ordinances are adopted, autopay procedures change, CCR publication URLs change, and LCRR service line inventory pages have been deployed at staggered times by different utilities. If you spot something on the site that doesn’t match the utility’s current published page, email us.
Email info@uswaterbillguide.org with the page URL and the detail that needs updating. We re-verify against the utility’s own page and update — usually within 48 hours for active discrepancies, particularly broken billing-portal URLs and out-of-date emergency phone numbers.
Find Your US Water Utility
Browse by state, by ZIP code, by utility name, or by service type. Every entry manually verified against the utility’s own published page.
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