Bentonville Water & Sewer Connection Fees (2026)

The City of Bentonville provides water, sewer and electric service itself: Bentonville Water Utilities runs water and wastewater, and the city’s own Electric Utility Department supplies power. For a new single-family home with a 5/8-inch water service on a lot created after January 22, 2026, the city’s published connection charges come to $8,992: $1,100 for the city to install the 5/8-inch water service, a $7,867 wastewater development fee and a $25 account service fee. The date the lot was platted is the big caveat. A house on a lot that was already platted by January 22, 2026 gets a one-unit credit against the new wastewater fee, so it pays $1,125 instead. Separately, the city collects $3,845 in fire, library, park and police impact fees before it issues the certificate of occupancy.

Bentonville tap and connection charges at a glance

The table lists every Bentonville row in our database with its source. Water service and street-work charges come from the fee schedule on the city’s Water and Sewer Fees – New Construction page, adopted by Ordinance 2018-36 and effective July 1, 2018, so those rows are marked for review. The wastewater development fee is in Chapter 46 of the Municipal Code (Ordinance 2025-218). Rows marked as not typical, such as road bores and street cuts, apply only in some cases.

What a new Bentonville house pays: worked example

Assume one detached house, a 5/8-inch water service tapped by the city onto an existing main, and a sewer service line already stubbed to the lot. The water service is $1,100 on the Water Utilities fee schedule (effective July 1, 2018). City Code Section 98-759 says water tap fees cover the city’s labor and materials, and Section 98-760 says only the city may make the tap. Section 46-154 sets the wastewater development fee at $7,867 per equivalent residential unit (ERU) from January 22 through December 31, 2026, and every dwelling unit counts as one ERU. The Utility Billing new-customer page lists a $25 non-refundable service fee on every account.

Published City of Bentonville utility charges for one new single-family home (contractor’s work, deposits and non-utility impact fees not included).

The credit rule is in the same section. A residential permit gets a credit of one ERU when the home is built on a lot that was platted as of January 22, 2026. The credit also covers a lot from a preliminary plat whose city pre-construction meeting was held before that date. So one house on an older lot pays nothing, while each home in a later lot split or subdivision pays the full fee. On a plat the developer pays it, so a buyer may see it only in the lot price.

The city impact fees come on top of those figures. For a single-family detached home the city’s Schedule of Impact Fees lists fire/EMS at $532, library at $442, parks at $2,521 and police at $350, or $3,845 in total, effective December 1, 2023. They are paid before the certificate of occupancy is issued. Adding them to the first case gives $12,837 in city charges; on an older lot it is $4,970.

What Bentonville’s fees don’t cover

• Private water and sewer lines on the lot. The house side of the water service and the sewer lateral are built by your plumber. National estimates are $30–$150 per foot for a water service line (typically about $50) and $50–$250 per foot for a sewer lateral (typically about $100), with trenching in normal soil included. See water service line cost and sewer lateral cost.
• A sewer tap on an existing main. City Code Section 98-758 charges $125 when city crews tap an existing sewer line in a hole the owner digs. That figure dates from 2005, and the 2018 schedule separately lists sewer service work at $150 an hour, so ask Water Utilities which one applies to your lot.
• Road bores and street cuts. The city charges $20 per linear foot to bore under a road for a water service and $100 per square yard for a street cut, plus $72 per square yard for a permanent T-patch. National estimates for hard digging are in utility trenching cost.
• Main extensions. Under Section 98-672, anyone extending a water or sewer main pays for it. That is normally a developer’s cost, not a per-home fee.
• Electric service. The Bentonville Electric Utility Department publishes no standard connection or line extension charge for a house. Its construction specifications (Rev 5, September 2024) have the contractor meet the New Service Coordinator on site, and BEUD then designs the service. The only fixed charges in that document are a $150 re-inspection after a failed inspection and a $200 reseal charge for broken meter seals.
• Building, plumbing and electrical permits, which Building Inspections charges separately.

National figures are estimates from our benchmark set. The calculator below loads Bentonville’s official fees; add your contractors’ quotes to it:

When you pay Bentonville connection fees

The water service fee is paid before the tap (Section 98-760). The wastewater development fee is due before the building permit for a single lot, or before the pre-construction meeting for a preliminary plat or large-scale development (Section 46-154). The four general impact fees are paid before the certificate of occupancy. For new subdivisions, the city’s FAQ says developers who build ahead of the new sewer interceptors will sign an agreement, and no domestic water meters will be set until the lot has an approved way to dispose of wastewater.

To open the account, Utility Billing asks for a signed service agreement and photo ID. The $25 fee rises to $50 for same-day service between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Any required deposit must be paid at application and is refunded to the account after 12 months of on-time payments. The page doesn’t state the deposit amount.

Bentonville fee changes to watch

• Wastewater development fee from January 2027. Section 46-154 raises the $7,867 fee every year after 2026 by the CPI-U index for water, sewer and trash service, and requires a professional review every three years. The 2027 amount had not been published when we checked.
• Sewer capacity. The city says several sewer basins are at or near capacity, and it is building interceptor projects in the Shewmaker, Town Branch, South, Shell and Spring Creek-Vaughn basins. Its capital projects update (September 21, 2026) lists state health department approvals running from June 2026 (Town Branch, already issued) to an expected January 2028, depending on the basin. Some new lots may have to wait for that work.
• A 2018 water fee schedule. The $1,100 water service fee comes from a schedule dated July 2018. The Municipal Code also still prints a 2009 table of water capacity fees ($1,366 for a 5/8-inch meter), but the city’s wastewater fee explainer on its New Construction page says its impact and capacity fees were “ultimately suspended by ordinance in 2016.” The explainer doesn’t name that water table or the ordinance, so we left that table out of the totals. Confirm current charges with Water Utilities at 479-271-3140.

How Bentonville compares

For a home on a lot platted before 2026, Bentonville’s $1,125 is in the same range as other cities in the region: Tulsa comes to $703.64 with a 5/8 x 3/4-inch meter, Kansas City to $858.00 with a 3/4-inch tap on an iron main, and Oklahoma City to $1,283.28 for a two-bath home. On a lot created after January 22, 2026, the $7,867 wastewater development fee pushes Bentonville’s total to $8,992, several times the figure in any of those three cities.

Bentonville tap fee FAQ

Related: water tap fees · sewer tap fees · tap fee vs. impact fee · Tulsa fees · Kansas City fees · Oklahoma City fees · utility connection cost calculator

Sources for Bentonville figures

• Fee Schedule, Water Utilities (Ord. No. 2018-36, effective July 1, 2018), City of Bentonville Water Utilities (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Water and Sewer Fees – New Construction, including the Wastewater Development Fee explainer and FAQ, City of Bentonville (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Bentonville Municipal Code, Chapter 46 (Sections 46-30, 46-58, 46-97, 46-132 and 46-150 to 46-160) and Chapter 98 (Sections 98-352, 98-672, 98-758 to 98-760), City of Bentonville (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Schedule of Impact Fees (Ordinances 2023-236 to 2023-239), City of Bentonville (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Utility Billing & Collections: New Customers, City of Bentonville (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• BEUD Construction Specifications, Rev 5 (September 2024), Bentonville Electric Utility Department (checked Sep 24, 2026)
• Bentonville Water Utilities Capital Project Improvements (September 21, 2026), City of Bentonville (checked Sep 24, 2026)