MAWSS Water & Sewer Tap Fees (2026)

In Mobile, the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System (MAWSS) is the sole provider of both water and sewer service; there is no separate city water or county sewer utility to check. For a new single-family home with a new water tap and a standard 5/8-inch meter, MAWSS’s published one-time charges come to $5,625: a $280 water capacity fee, a $1,180 water service-line tap fee, a $245 water connection fee that includes the meter, a $720 sewer capacity fee, and a flat $3,200 sewer tap fee (MAWSS Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026). The single biggest local quirk: MAWSS prices the sewer tap as a flat $3,200 no matter what size water meter the house gets, so it makes up well over half of the total and doesn’t shrink for a smaller meter. For how this compares nationally, see our guide to the cost to connect to city water.

Mobile connection fees at a glance

The rows below come from MAWSS’s current Fee Schedule (effective January 1, 2026), which splits new-service charges into a “Capacity Fee” (by dwelling unit for single-family homes), a “Service Line Installation (Tap) Fee” (by line size for water, flat for sewer), and a “Service Line Connection Fee” that includes the meter. “Other published fees” are real MAWSS charges — the $100 residential deposit and the right-of-way permit fees — that apply only in some situations.

Worked example: a new home in Mobile

Assumptions: a lot with existing water and sewer mains adjacent, a new tap for both services, and the standard 5/8-inch meter (MAWSS bills the capacity fee for a single-family house by dwelling unit, ERC 1.0, not by meter size). The sewer tap fee does not change with meter size.

One-time official charges for one new single-family home in Mobile, by meter size. Source: MAWSS Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026. Private service-line and lateral construction not included.

The first row is $280 + $1,180 + $245 + $720 + $3,200 = $5,625. Moving to a 1-inch meter changes four of the five line items, because MAWSS’s capacity, tap and connection fees are all sized to the meter for non-dwelling-unit billing, and the total rises to $7,285 — a $1,660 jump the sewer tap fee alone doesn’t explain, since that line stays flat. The last row adds the City of Mobile’s water and sewer right-of-way permits ($150 and $250), which the fee schedule says apply only “when tap requires work within the City right-of-way”; MAWSS’s Mapping and Connections Department can confirm whether a given lot needs them.

Mobile vs. Huntsville and Birmingham, AL

Mobile’s $5,625 total for a 5/8-inch meter sits between the state’s other two documented cities. Huntsville Utilities and the city’s Water Pollution Control office charge $4,281 for the same situation — a $1,635 water tap, a $1,646 water system development charge and a $1,000 sewer access fee (see our Huntsville tap fee page). That is $1,344 less than Mobile, and the gap is almost entirely on the sewer side: Huntsville’s flat sewer charge is $1,000 against MAWSS’s $3,200 sewer tap plus $720 sewer capacity fee ($3,920). Birmingham is a different kind of comparison because its Jefferson County sewer bill scales with plumbing fixtures rather than meter size: a 10-fixture Birmingham home pays $5,868.88 in Central Alabama Water and county charges (see our Birmingham tap fee page), just $243.88 more than Mobile’s flat-rate 5/8-inch total — but a smaller Birmingham house (8 fixtures) drops to $5,066.54, below Mobile’s number, while a larger one (13 fixtures) rises to $7,072.39, above it. Mobile’s total doesn’t move with house size the way Birmingham’s does; it moves with meter size instead.

What Mobile’s fees don’t cover

MAWSS’s Policy and Procedure Manual states that sewer laterals “shall be installed and maintained at the owner’s expense from his property line to the structure served,” and the same is true of the water line on the customer’s side of the meter. Typical costs the fees above don’t cover:

• Water service line from the meter to the house: $30 to $150 per foot, about $50 typical, installed including the trench (national estimate).
• Sewer lateral: $50 to $250 per foot, about $100 typical, installed including the trench (national estimate).
• Street cut or bore if a line must cross the road: $1,000 to $10,000 per crossing, about $4,000 typical (national estimate).
• Plumbing permit: about $300 typical (national estimate).
• Electric hookup: Alabama Power does not publish a flat residential connection fee — where its distribution line already reaches the adjacent pole, standard service wire and meter connection is free (Rules and Regulations for Electric Service, Sec. 4.4); a lot needing new poles or a transformer is billed under a cost-to-serve formula instead of a fixed price, so we could not record a verified figure for it.

One item that is covered here and often isn’t elsewhere: MAWSS installs the residential backflow-prevention device (a dual check valve) on new 5/8-inch-to-1-inch service connections at no separate charge, and residential customers are not required to test it (Cross-Connection Policy Sec. 6.04.B). A 60-foot water line at $50 a foot ($3,000) and a 60-foot sewer lateral at $100 a foot ($6,000) would add about $9,000, more than the official 5/8-inch total above. These figures come from our national benchmark set. See water service line cost and sewer lateral cost, or model your own lot here:

How and when Mobile fees are paid

• Fees are due in advance of service. MAWSS’s Fee Schedule states “All fees are payable in advance of service,” though the Board may allow some one-time fees to be paid in installments (Policy Manual Sec. 3.1).
• New construction on a lot with no existing line. The owner, builder or contractor presents the building permit and pays the applicable fees and charges before MAWSS connects the service (Policy Manual Sec. 2.3).
• Sewer portion can be financed. Non-rental residential customers may finance the sewer connection charges: MAWSS places a lien on the property, recorded with the county Probate office, and bills the loan monthly on the water bill until it’s paid off (Policy Manual Secs. 2.3, 3.2, 7.9). The minimum down payment is 15% of the amount financed, with the balance repaid over up to five years.
• A $100 deposit to open the account. Residential accounts require a minimum $100 security deposit (Fee Schedule Sec. III); commercial deposits are based on meter size or consumption instead.
• Water and sewer are billed together. Where both services are available, MAWSS requires customers to take both; a home connected to only one within six months of both becoming available is charged the minimum fee for the unused service on top of the used one (Policy Manual Sec. 4.3).

What could change in Mobile

MAWSS’s current Fee Schedule took effect January 1, 2026 and is the newest version on its website; we found no scheduled future increase to the tap, capacity or connection fees in the documents reviewed. The Policy and Procedure Manual that explains how the fees are applied is also dated 2026. Monthly water and sewer usage rates (not the one-time fees above) are set separately in Section I of the same Fee Schedule and are unaffected by this page’s totals.

Mobile connection fee questions

Where to go next from Mobile

Compare Mobile with Huntsville and Birmingham, or see the full tap fees by city table. Related guides: tap fee vs. impact fee, water tap fee, sewer tap fee and the utility connection cost calculator.

Mobile fee sources

• Mobile Area Water and Sewer System Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2026, MAWSS. Checked Sep 26, 2026.
• Mobile Area Water and Sewer System Policy & Procedure Manual, 2026, MAWSS (Sections 2, 3, 6 and 7: provision of service, fees and charges, cross-connection/backflow policy, main extensions). Checked Sep 26, 2026.
• Developer’s Fees, MAWSS. Checked Sep 26, 2026.
• Rules and Regulations for Electric Service, effective October 4, 2022, Alabama Power Company (Sec. 4.4, Connection of Initial Service). Checked Sep 26, 2026.
• National cost estimates: Utility Cost Guide benchmark methodology.