Reno Water and Sewer Connection Fees: TMWA Facility Charges and City Sewer (2026)

In the City of Reno, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) provides water and the City of Reno collects the sewer connection fee. In our three worked examples below (6,000 to 10,000 sq ft lots in three TMWA charge areas), the published charges for a new single-family home come to roughly $18,700 to $24,500: $13,010 to $13,115 in city sewer fees (FY 2026/27), about $4,200 to $10,200 in estimated TMWA Water System Facility (WSF) charges, and $1,350 in TMWA application fees. The WSF figures are estimates: TMWA sets the actual demand in GPM, and so the actual charge, in your Water Service Agreement, and lots in higher-cost charge areas such as Verdi pay more. That total leaves out the biggest unknown. Before TMWA will serve a new home, water rights have to be dedicated to it, or a will-serve commitment bought from TMWA, and TMWA publishes a formula for how much water you need but no price.

Reno connection fees at a glance

The table lists every Reno row we verified. TMWA’s facility charges are not flat fees. Each one is a unit cost per gallon per minute (GPM) of “maximum day demand,” and TMWA sets the demand for your lot when it writes the Water Service Agreement. There are three: a supply and treatment charge ($7,300 per GPM almost everywhere), a storage charge ($933 per GPM in some areas, $0 in others), and an area facility charge that ranges from $0 in Central Reno to $18,130 per GPM in Verdi. The flat TMWA rows are Business Services Fees paid with the application. The City of Reno sewer fee depends on which treatment plant, or “sewer shed,” serves the lot.

Worked example: a new home in Reno

TMWA’s guideline for estimating maximum day demand (effective October 1, 2019) puts a single-family lot at 0.0066 × the square root of the lot size in square feet, capped at 1.5 GPM. That works out to 0.51 GPM for 6,000 sq ft, 0.59 GPM for 8,000 sq ft and 0.66 GPM for 10,000 sq ft. TMWA calls these estimates and sets the final demand after it receives a complete application. The unit costs are from TMWA Rate Schedule WSF (effective July 1, 2024), and the sewer fees are from the City of Reno FY 26/27 sewer connection schedule. We assume a home with 31 or fewer sewer fixture units and one water service applied for as a single-family residential service. The sewer shed paired with each charge area is our illustrative assumption, not a published map; the City and TMWA confirm which treatment plant and charge area serve a given lot.

Estimated official connection charges for one new home, City of Reno, 2026 (excludes water rights)

The arithmetic for case B: 0.59 × $7,300 = $4,307; 0.59 × $933 = $550; 0.59 × $7,159 = $4,224. The area charge separates the cases. The same lot in Verdi (Area 7) would pay 0.59 × $18,130 = $10,697 for that line alone, though Verdi has no storage charge.

Now the water rights. Under TMWA Rule 7, a single-family lot’s demand is 1 ÷ (1 + 19,000 ÷ lot size) acre-feet a year, with a 0.11 acre-foot minimum, multiplied by 1.11 when the rights are mainstream Truckee River rights (1.00 for groundwater rights). With Truckee River rights that comes to 0.27 acre-feet for case A, 0.33 for case B and 0.38 for case C. TMWA’s own will-serve inventory is repriced monthly from what it paid for the rights, so there is no published number to add here. Get a current quote from TMWA or a water-rights broker before you price a lot.

What Reno’s fees don’t cover

TMWA treats water mains, services and meters as “Applicant Installed Facilities,” which your licensed contractor builds to TMWA standards at your expense (Rule 5). None of that construction is in the table. National estimates (methodology), trenching included in the per-foot figures:

• Water service line: $30–$150 per foot, typical $50. At 40 feet, about $2,000.
• Sewer lateral: $50–$250 per foot, typical $100. At 60 feet, about $6,000.
• Meter set, 5/8 to 1 inch: $200–$500, typical $300.
• Plumbing permit: $100–$1,300, typical $300.

Also not included: the water rights themselves, a main extension if no main fronts the lot, the City of Reno building permit and other impact fees (the city lists Regional Road Impact Fees and a Police Facility Impact Fee among building permit fees), and electric service from NV Energy, whose line-extension terms we did not collect.

In the calculator below, the three TMWA facility charges and the water rights are formula rows, so they are not added to the total. Enter the amounts from your Water Service Agreement or a quote, or use the worked example above to estimate them.

When you pay Reno connection fees

TMWA takes new-service applications through its online portal. Once an application looks complete, TMWA assesses the Business Services Fees, which are due within 24 hours of notice and are non-refundable. If no Water Service Agreement is signed within 12 months of a complete application, the application is cancelled. The WSF charges are set in that agreement. The water-rights step comes before construction: TMWA’s policy is that a new project pays for facilities and water rights before it gets service.

The sewer connection fee is assessed through the City of Reno’s permit process, where you apply on the regional permitting portal. Homes with more than 31 fixture units pay $605 per extra unit in the TMWRF shed ($735 Lawton-Verdi, $600 Reno-Stead), counted on the City’s Sewer Fixture Weighting Sheet.

How Reno compares with Las Vegas

Las Vegas splits the bill differently. The Las Vegas page shows about $16,815 for a 5/8-inch meter: $13,580 in water charges (mostly the $7,998 SNWA Regional Connection Charge) and a $3,235 city sewer fee. In Reno the pattern flips. The city sewer fee alone is $13,115, while TMWA’s published water charges run $5,549 to $11,529 in our three cases. Las Vegas prices water by meter size; Reno prices it by estimated demand, which follows lot size, and adds a water-rights requirement.

What could change in Reno

• Reno’s sewer connection fees are adjusted by CPI under Reno Municipal Code 12.16.290, and the schedule is adopted by fiscal year. The current sheet is FY 2026/27; expect new figures for FY 2027/28 starting July 1, 2027.
• TMWA’s WSF unit costs were last amended July 1, 2024, and the Business Services Fee sheet on January 31, 2022. Both are still the sheets in TMWA’s rate schedules posted for May 1, 2026.
• Rule 7’s demand formula was amended December 11, 2025. Recheck it if you have an older quote.

Common questions about Reno fees

More on Reno and nearby cities

tap fees by city · Las Vegas connection fees · Salt Lake City connection fees · tap fee vs impact fee · sewer connection cost · utility connection cost calculator

Official documents behind the Reno figures

• Rate Schedules (combined sheets posted for May 1, 2026): Schedule WSF, Water System Facility Charges, and Schedule BSF, Business Services Fees, Truckee Meadows Water Authority. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Rule 7, Requirements for Will-Serve Commitment Letters, Truckee Meadows Water Authority. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Rule 5, Water System Facilities (effective March 20, 2025), Truckee Meadows Water Authority. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Guidelines for Estimating Maximum Day Demands (effective October 1, 2019), Truckee Meadows Water Authority. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• New Business Application Process and Community Growth and Water Service, Truckee Meadows Water Authority. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Adopted Fees and Charges FY 26/27, Sewer Connection, City of Reno. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Sewer Will-Serve Application, City of Reno Development Services. Checked Sep 24, 2026.