Water and Sewer Tap Fees by City (2026)

In the 18 cities where our verified fee rows add up to a complete figure, the official water and sewer charges for one new single-family home run from $2,416 in Salt Lake City to $29,322 in Phoenix’s Northwest impact-fee area. Most land between about $5,000 and $15,000. Denver ($17,380 on a 7,000-square-foot lot) and Charlotte ($17,370 when Charlotte Water installs both connections) sit near the top of that range. These are government charges only. The pipe from the property line to the house, trenching, and the plumber’s permit come on top.

The table below builds each total from the published fee schedule and shows the arithmetic, so you can check which charges we counted and swap in your own meter size or lot size. Every figure links to the utility’s own document.

National comparison: official connection charges for a typical new home

Core charges = capacity, impact or system development fees + utility-installed tap or connection fees + meter charges, for the smallest standard residential meter the schedule lists. Excludes building and plumbing permits, inspections, deposits, private service lines and non-utility impact fees (roads, parks, schools). Checked 2026-09-24.

“Needs review” means the official document is older than FY2024 or conflicts with another official page. We show it so you know the fee exists, but confirm the amount with the utility before budgeting.

Why the same house costs 10 times more to connect in one city than another

The spread in the table is mostly about what each fee is buying, not about pipe prices.

• Capacity fees versus taps. A capacity, impact or system development fee buys a share of treatment plants and trunk lines already built. A tap or connection fee pays for the physical work at the main. Salt Lake City’s adopted connection fees are the lowest in the table, and the city has proposed raising them. Phoenix’s Northwest area adds $14,046 in water transmission and $5,127 in wastewater collection impact fees that are $0 in the Balance of City area. See tap fee vs impact fee for the full vocabulary.
• Who does the digging. Charlotte and Raleigh both sell capacity for a few thousand dollars, but when the city makes the taps, the total roughly triples. In San Antonio a private contractor normally installs the service under a SAWS permit, so that cost shows up in your plumber’s bid instead of the utility invoice.
• Formulas. Denver charges by lot square footage, Colorado Springs by lot-size tier, Houston and Austin per service unit, Nashville per 350-gallon-per-day unit, Portland per drainage fixture unit. A bigger lot or a bigger meter changes the answer.
• Split providers. Orlando homes can get water from OUC and sewer from the city; Tucson homes pay Tucson Water and Pima County; Las Vegas homes pay SNWA, LVVWD and a separate sewer agency. Check every provider on your address.

How meter size moves the total

Same utility, same house, larger meter. Official schedules, effective dates as in the table above.

Charlotte’s 1-inch figure is $7,068 + $3,632 + $12,664; Seattle’s is $11,730 + $4,420. Fort Collins, for example, lists a separate 1-inch residential fire-sprinkler tap. Ask your designer whether the larger meter is truly required before the permit locks it in. The water meter installation cost guide covers the hardware side.

Tap fees and connection charges by state

These live tables list every fee row we hold for each state, including meter sizes and fee types the national table leaves out. Blank amounts mean the source did not publish a verified number; they are not zeros.

Texas

Texas impact fees fall under Local Government Code Chapter 395 and are usually assessed at plat and collected at permit or connection. In Austin and McKinney the plat date picks the fee table; in Fort Worth the building permit date sets the rate. State hub: Texas utility connection costs.

North Carolina

Charlotte and Raleigh both split charges into a capacity fee and a physical connection fee. Hub: North Carolina utility connection costs.

Tennessee

Nashville’s water capacity charge is due before the connection permit, and unpaid tap or capacity fees can become a lien.

Florida

Addresses inside Orlando, in unincorporated Orange County and in Tampa pay different providers. Hub: Florida utility connection costs.

South Carolina

Charleston Water System raises impact fees every January 1; the 2027 amounts are already published.

Colorado

All three Colorado cities tie at least one fee to lot size, and Fort Collins adds a water-rights requirement. Hub: Colorado utility connection costs.

Arizona

Phoenix impact fees depend on the planning area; Tucson’s sewer fee is paid to Pima County and rises every July 1. Hub: Arizona utility connection costs.

Nevada

The SNWA regional connection charge adjusts every March 1. Many “Las Vegas” addresses are unincorporated Clark County with a different sewer agency.

Utah

Salt Lake City had a pending increase to water, sewer and stormwater impact fees when we checked; the table shows the adopted schedule.

Oregon

Portland’s sewer SDC is priced per drainage fixture unit, and some new housing permits through 9/30/2028 may be exempt.

Washington

Seattle added wastewater and drainage SDCs on January 1, 2026; before that only water carried an SDC.

California

Sacramento homes pay only one of the two city sewer development fees, depending on the sewer area. Homes on regional sewer pay a separate agency we have not yet collected.

Ohio

Columbus charges more for water capacity in contract suburbs than inside the city, and lists per-foot front-footage charges for water and sewer.

Method and downloads

We read each utility’s current fee schedule, ordinance or tariff and record the fee name, amount, basis, meter size, effective date and source link exactly as published. Rows older than FY2024, or contradicted by another official page, are marked needs review. The national table adds only charges a typical new single-family home would pay and states every assumption in the “How we got the number” column. National planning figures used elsewhere on the site are labeled estimates and explained on the methodology page; see also our source and data policy and the full fee database.

Download the fee rows as CSV or JSON. Each row carries its source URL, effective date, verification date and status.

Related tools and guides

Price the rest of the job with the utility connection cost calculator. Guides: water tap fee · sewer tap fee · tap fee vs impact fee · water meter installation cost · new construction utility costs · cost to bring utilities to land.

Frequently asked questions