Meters are read on or about the 15th of each month, and bills are generated on or about the 1st of the following month. Bills are due and payable from the date they are posted to your account. The due date stated on your bill is the 15th of the month, or the next business day if the 15th falls on a weekend or City holiday.

If your bill is not paid by the due date stated on the bill, a late fee of 10% of the billed balance is added. No late fee is charged before the due date.

The fee for a returned check or returned auto draft is $45.00.

Cash, check, and credit card payments are accepted through the City Hall drive-through and in person. Payments can also be made online at https://redwatertexas.com/payment-portal/, where you can also set up ACH/automatic draft payments.

Cash, check, and credit card payments are accepted through the City Hall drive-through and in person. Payments can also be made online at https://redwatertexas.com/payment-portal/, where you can also set up ACH/automatic draft payments.

Cash, check, and credit card payments are accepted through the City Hall drive-through and in person. Payments can also be made online at https://redwatertexas.com/payment-portal/, where you can also set up ACH/automatic draft payments.

You can ask the City to manually re-read your meter. If the original reading was in error, there is no charge. If the original reading was correct, the fee is $5.00.

If a meter fails to register correctly, the City determines the amount due using the moving average of your previous usage. The City also periodically tests and, as funding allows, replaces water meters to keep billing accurate. There is no fixed testing or replacement schedule.

Cash, check, and credit card payments are accepted through the City Hall drive-through and in person. Payments can also be made online at https://redwatertexas.com/payment-portal/, where you can also set up ACH/automatic draft payments.

The rates below take effect with the October 2026 billing. Residential sewer charges are based on the quantity of water used, up to a maximum of 15,000 gallons per connection per month.

Beginning with the October 2027 billing, and each October after that, rates adjust automatically by the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), up to a maximum of 3% in any single year, unless City Council sets a different rate by ordinance.

For multi-family dwellings served by a single water meter, each dwelling unit occupied during the month is charged the same rate used to calculate residential water and sewer charges for a single-family dwelling.

The following fees apply.

Before service is disconnected for nonpayment, the City mails or hand-delivers a separate written termination notice. The notice goes out no later than the 17th of the month (or the preceding business day if the 17th falls on a weekend or City holiday), so that you receive at least 10 days’ notice before the shut-off day.

The notice shows the words “TERMINATION NOTICE” (or similar language) set apart from other information, the action required to avoid disconnection, and the total amount of past-due charges. It also gives the date by which you must act (at least 10 days from the date the notice is provided), the intended date of disconnection, and the office hours, telephone number and address of the City’s utility office. It lists the reconnect fee(s) that will apply if service is disconnected. The notice is provided in English and, if necessary to adequately inform you, in Spanish.

No. A termination notice is always sent by mail or hand-delivery. The City shares general updates, such as office closures, service interruptions and announcements, predominantly through postings at City Hall. Our website (redwatertexas.com), our Facebook page, and our text messaging system may also be used. Those channels do not replace the notices the City must send about your account.

The City’s monthly shut-off day is the 28th, or the following business day if the 28th falls on a weekend or holiday. Service is disconnected for a customer whose account remains unpaid as of the close of business on the shut-off day and who was properly sent a termination notice.

Yes. City personnel are available during normal business hours to accept payment on the day service is disconnected and on the following business day.

Contact the City right away. Service cannot be held back because of an amount you are disputing while the dispute is pending, or because of any charge unrelated to water or sewer service. Restoration can be conditioned only on payment of past-due water and sewer charges and the applicable reconnect fee, or on correcting the condition that caused the disconnection.

If you pay all past-due charges and applicable fees and request reconnection within 45 days of disconnection, the reconnect fee will not exceed $25.00. If you do not request reconnection within 45 days, the City’s standard reconnect fee of $40.00 may be charged.

Once past-due charges and applicable fees are paid, or the condition that caused the disconnection is corrected, the City restores service within 36 hours.

The City may not discontinue service to a delinquent residential customer who provides a written statement from a physician, before the stated disconnection date, saying that a person residing at the residence will become seriously ill, or more seriously ill, if service is discontinued. A verbal request is not enough. This delays disconnection but does not cancel what you owe. Service can still be disconnected if the next month’s bill and the past-due bill remain unpaid by the due date of the next month’s bill, unless you have entered into a deferred payment agreement with the City. Contact the City to set one up.

Deposits are required on all accounts, except as described below. Residential, customer owns home: $150. Residential, customer rents home: $300. Commercial: $400.

No deposit is required of a residential service applicant who is 65 or older, unless the applicant has a delinquent account balance with the City or with another water or sewer utility.

Yes. The City pays interest on customer deposits at not less than the minimum annual rate set by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Interest is paid annually if you request it, or when your deposit is returned or credited to your account.

When your service is disconnected, your deposit plus accrued interest is promptly and automatically refunded. If you owe the City a balance, the deposit is first applied to the amount owed and the remainder is refunded. A residential customer who pays 18 consecutive billings without being delinquent is also refunded the deposit plus accrued interest, even while remaining a customer.

The City keeps a record of each unclaimed deposit for at least 7 years and makes a reasonable effort to return it during that time. Deposits not returned within that period are transferred to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

Fees depend on your situation. A deposit is generally required (see Deposits). A connection fee applies: $40.00 where a tap and/or meter is already in place, or $75.00 where the site of a new building or renovation has taken place. A new tap costs $1,450.00 for water and $600.00 for sewer, whether residential or commercial, inside or outside City limits.

No. Anyone who wishes to be connected to City sewer service must also be connected to City water service. The only exception is a customer who, before March 2006, was already on City sewer but not on City water.

Submit a written request. The City will disconnect service no later than the end of the next working day. No disconnection fee or reconnect fee applies to a disconnection made solely at your request, although normal fees apply if you later request reconnection.

Yes. Before work begins, the City’s licensed water operator inspects the site. The operator also inspects the work once it is completed but before it is covered up, so please do not cover or backfill any work until it has been inspected. A customer service inspection, performed by a person holding the credentials required by TCEQ rule 30 TAC §290.46(j), is also completed before continuous service begins. The City keeps the completed inspection certificate on file for at least 10 years. Please contact City Hall before you start work so the City can schedule the inspections with its licensed water operator. City Hall phone (903) 671-2775 and email city@redwatertexas.com

Yes. If you wish to add to your or the City’s existing water and sewer lines, you must state your intentions and have written permission from the City before work begins. Contact City Hall as early as possible, and no later than when you receive written permission, so the City’s licensed water operator can inspect the site before work begins and the work before it is covered up. If a contractor is making the tap, the contractor must give the City advance notice of the tap date. You are responsible for the cost of the lines, valves, meters, fire hydrants and line taps, including parts and labor, and must comply with the City’s specifications.

Possibly. The City requires a customer service inspection of an existing connection where it has reason to believe a cross-connection or other potential contaminant hazard exists, or after any material improvement, correction or addition to your private water distribution facilities. If an inspection finds a health hazard, the City may immediately terminate water service to that connection, and service may be restored only when the hazard no longer exists or has been isolated from the public water system. Contact the City before starting major plumbing work.

Only in limited situations. No more than two water connections are allowed on one meter, and only where a temporary and/or permanent residence is connected to a line serving another residence (for two permanent residences, the residents must be parent and child). The account owner is responsible for the entire bill, which is two minimum charges plus water usage. Dual connections require prior written approval and inspection by Redwater Water and Sewer personnel.

No. The City does not require a separate meter. A one-inch meter is recommended, but not required, if one meter serves both your residence and an irrigation system; there is an additional charge for the one-inch meter. If you choose to install a separate irrigation meter, it incurs all fees that apply to water taps, deposits, inspections and water usage.

If one meter serves both your residence and your irrigation system, sewer charges are not reduced for water used for irrigation. Sewer charges are based on your total water usage.

Yes. If you call City Hall and ask that the meter be turned off during months of no usage, the meter will be locked and no monthly minimum charge will be assessed, even if the irrigation system is not in use.

Customers with irrigation systems must purchase and have installed a backflow preventer. It keeps water from your irrigation system from flowing backward into the City’s drinking water supply.

The backflow preventer must be tested upon installation, before it is placed in service, and every year after that, by a licensed backflow prevention assembly tester, at your expense. A passing test from a prior year does not carry over. Proof of a passing test must be submitted to the City within 10 business days of the test.

Where the test is coordinated or performed by the City, an annual backflow preventer inspection/certification fee of $30.00 applies.

A missing or improperly functioning backflow preventer on an irrigation system connected to the City’s water supply is a known and dangerous condition, and the City may disconnect service immediately and without prior notice. Where reasonable, the City posts written notice of the disconnection and the reason for it at your property entrance, common entry or front door as soon as possible after disconnection. Service is restored within 36 hours of the successful and proper installation of a fully functioning backflow preventer.

Only in limited situations: a missing or improperly functioning irrigation backflow preventer (a known and dangerous condition), a health hazard found during a customer service inspection, or meter tampering. After a health-hazard shutoff, service is restored only when the hazard no longer exists or has been isolated from the public water system.

If a meter has been disconnected for nonpayment and the City finds that the lock has been removed or service has been reconnected without the City’s approval and without payment of the overdue bill, the City may disconnect service without prior notice, charge a tampering fee, and remove the meter.

If the meter is removed, before it is reinstalled you must pay: all unpaid bills; the late fee; a $10.00 lock charge; a $50.00 meter reinstallation fee; and the tampering fee ($50.00 for a first offense, $250.00 for each subsequent offense). You must also pay the cost of any damages you caused, plus any other costs incurred in removing or reinstalling the meter.

Anyone who turns on water service or takes water from the City supply without the City’s approval may be turned over to the proper authority for prosecution and charged for all water used, as determined by metering or estimated usage.

The City charges the customer the cost of supplies when it must replace a damaged or missing node, meter box, or lid more than once for the same customer.

Yes. The City will not charge a late fee on, or disconnect water or sewer service for nonpayment of, a bill that became due during an extreme weather emergency, until the emergency is over. Customers whose bill became due during the emergency are offered a payment schedule so the resulting past-due balance can be paid in one or more installments. The payment schedule delays payment but does not erase what you owe.

An extreme weather emergency begins when the previous day’s highest temperature in the City’s service area did not exceed 28°F and the temperature is predicted to remain at or below 28°F for the next 24 hours, according to the nearest National Weather Service reports. It is over on the second business day the temperature exceeds 28°F.

City Hall
120 Redwater Blvd W.
Redwater, Texas 75573

Phone
(903) 671-2775

Email
city@redwatertexas.com

Hours of Operation
Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Friday, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Saturday, Closed
Sunday, Closed

Mailing Address:
PO BOX 209
Redwater, TX 75573