Richmond DPU Water & Sewer Connection Charges (2026)

Inside the City of Richmond, the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) provides both water and sewer, and city crews install the water service in the street. The DPU connection charge schedule effective July 1, 2026 puts a new single-family home with a 5/8-inch meter at $5,500 (water service installation) + $810 (water capacity) + $1,500 (wastewater inspection) + $1,560 (wastewater capacity) = $9,370. The charges scale with meter size, so the number that matters most is the meter DPU assigns from your fixture count. A 1-inch meter raises the total to $13,080. The schedule says these charges are approved by City Council and cannot be waived.

Official Richmond fees in one table

Richmond splits each utility’s charge into two parts. The installation part pays for the work in the right of way. For water, DPU crews normally do all of it (City Code lets the director allow an owner-built service case by case, with DPU still setting the meter and making the main connection): the tap on the main, the stops, the service pipe and the meter box. For sewer, your contractor builds the lateral and DPU inspects it, so that part is an inspection charge. The capacity part is the buy-in to the water and wastewater systems. Every charge, sewer included, is keyed to the water meter size. The 3/4-inch rows come from the council ordinance (Ord. No. 2026-063), but DPU’s own schedule marks that size “N/A”, so we keep them out of the typical total. The gas rows apply only if you add Richmond Gas Works service.

Worked example for a single-family home in Richmond

Assumptions: a detached house on a lot inside Richmond city limits, fronting an existing water main and sewer, with DPU installing the water service. Case C is a house that already has city water and is connecting to sewer for the first time.

Richmond DPU connection charges for one house, by scenario (source: DPU Connection Charges, Water & Wastewater, effective July 1, 2026).

The arithmetic: A is $5,500 + $810 + $1,500 + $1,560 = $9,370. B is $5,700 + $2,000 + $1,500 + $3,880 = $13,080. C is $1,500 + $1,560 = $3,060. The same totals are printed on the DPU sheet (A and B in its combined table, C in its wastewater-only table), so the pieces add up the way the city intends.

Which meter you get is not your choice alone. The DPU application includes a fixture-value worksheet: you count bathtubs, toilets, hose bibs and so on, and the total sets the meter size. The chart on the form rates a 5/8-inch meter up to 20 gallons per minute and a 1-inch meter up to 50. A large house with several baths, a lawn sprinkler system or a long service run can land on the 1-inch meter. The form notes that distance and elevation can also push the size up. At 1 inch, the capacity charges more than double, which is most of the $3,710 gap between A and B.

If you later ask for a bigger connection, City Code lets DPU charge the full connection charge for the new size, with no refund if you go smaller.

What is not included in Richmond fees

DPU’s water work stops at the meter box. Everything past it, and the whole sewer lateral, is private work your contractor does and pays for:

• Water service line from the meter box to the house: $30 to $150 per foot, about $50 typical, trench included (national estimate).
• Sewer lateral from the house to the main, including the part in the street that DPU inspects: $50 to $250 per foot, about $100 typical, trench included (national estimate).
• Street cut or bore for the lateral if the sewer is across the road: $1,000 to $10,000 per crossing, about $4,000 typical (national estimate).
• Plumbing permit from the city’s permits office, which DPU requires for all private installations: $100 to $1,300, about $300 typical (national estimate).
• Backflow device, if DPU decides your house needs one. The application says it can be required on single-family services when there is a risk to the water system.

For a house set 60 feet back, typical conditions add roughly 60 × $50 = $3,000 for the water line and 60 × $100 = $6,000 for the sewer lateral. Those per-foot figures already include trenching, so don’t add trenching again. They come from our national benchmark set, not from Richmond. Case A plus those two lines comes to about $18,370 before the plumbing permit. Build your own estimate here:

How and when Richmond fees are paid

• Apply to DPU Development Services (900 E. Broad St., Room 115; 804-646-8544) with the water and sewer application and fixture worksheet. The form says DPU will not accept fees until it has the detailed information it needs, including a sketch showing where each installation goes.
• Water installation takes time. After the permit is approved, DPU says to allow at least 30 to 45 days for its crews to install the service.
• Sewer is on you. DPU does not install new sewer services. Your contractor supplies and installs the lateral and must set up a pre-construction meeting with DPU’s collections division at least 48 hours before work starts. To reuse an existing lateral, DPU has to video-inspect it while the pipe is exposed.
• The meter comes last. DPU will not set the meter until any required backflow device is installed and checked by its cross-connection staff. The schedule does not list a separate meter price. City Code says the owner pays for the meter, so ask DPU whether your quote includes it.
• Installments. City Code lets the director accept the water connection charge in installments under DPU rules. Ask Development Services if you want that option.

Gas is separate. Richmond Gas Works, the city’s gas utility, needs its own permit application listing your appliances and their BTU loads, and those appliances must be running within six months of the service line going in. City Code has the city lay the service pipe at its own expense within size, length and cost limits the director sets. Richmond Gas Works says a customer contribution toward the underground gas lines may be required, quoted once it has your site and appliance details.

Upcoming changes in Richmond

City Council reset these charges in the FY2027 budget ordinance (Ord. No. 2026-063, adopted May 11, 2026, effective July 1, 2026). For a 5/8-inch meter, the prior amounts were $6,020 for water and $2,400 for sewer. That was $8,420 in total, so the new $9,370 is $950 higher. The mix also changed. Installation charges went up: water from $5,000 to $5,500, and sewer inspection from $200 to $1,500. Capacity charges went down: water from $1,020 to $810, and sewer from $2,200 to $1,560. A builder quote from before July 2026 is probably priced on the old numbers. The $1,000 charge for a gas service left unused for six months comes from a 2009 DPU sheet, so we mark it for review.

Richmond connection fee questions

More on Richmond and nearby cities

Compare Richmond with Raleigh, NC. Raleigh’s FY27 capacity fees and meter come to $3,960 when stubs already exist, and $14,871 when city crews install both water and sewer taps. Richmond’s schedule includes city installation of the water service, so its $9,370 falls between those two Raleigh cases. See also tap fees by city, sewer lateral cost and tap fee vs. impact fee.

Richmond fee sources

• Connection Charges, Water & Wastewater, City Installed Services (effective July 1, 2026), City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Ordinance No. 2026-063, FY2027 budget and fees (sections 5 and 6), Richmond City Council, adopted May 11, 2026. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Application for Water, Sanitary and Storm Sewer (rev. 2025), DPU Development Services. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• City Code Chapter 28, gas service establishment charges, City of Richmond. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Convert to Natural Gas, Richmond Gas Works. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• Process for Gas Installation (2009), DPU. Checked Sep 24, 2026.
• National cost estimates: Utility Cost Guide benchmark methodology.