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How we calculated this

Read by an AI agent (a large language model) from the utility's official rate schedule, then audited by a second model against the same schedule. This bill uses inside-city rates; customers outside the city pay different rates.

Extracted by: Audit · Claude Opus 5.5 · 10/29/2026
Source:
Monthly base charge for a 5/8" single-family meter inside the city: $32.41
Water use: 8.021 CCF at $2.90/CCF = $23.26
Mandatory Lake Whatcom Watershed land acquisition charge for single-family homes: $18.13
Total: $73.80/mo

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Utility profile · WA

BELLINGHAM-WATER DIVISION CITY OF Water Rates

BELLINGHAM-WATER DIVISION CITY OF supplies water to about 140,000 people in Bellingham and Marietta-Alderwood, Washington. A typical household using 6,000 gallons a month pays an estimated $73.80 in the main service area, 27% above the national average.

Rates effective 2026-01-01

Updated Oct 2026

How much does water cost provided by BELLINGHAM-WATER DIVISION CITY OF?

Monthly Rate

$73.80 / month

$55.67 water + $18.13 required fees ⓘ

Read and audited by AI against the official rate schedule ·

This bill uses inside-city rates; customers outside the city pay different rates.

How the bill adds up

Service charge
⅝” meter
$32.41
Water used
8.021 ccf × $2.9/ccf
$23.26
Required fees and surcharges $18.13
Total $73.80

How does BELLINGHAM-WATER DIVISION CITY OF's water cost compare to its regional neighbors?

Monthly cost (6k gal) vs up to 10 nearest utilities with published rates. Click to navigate.

Where does BELLINGHAM-WATER DIVISION CITY OF provide service?

Population served and the municipalities covered by this utility's service area.

Boundaries from the EPA Water System Service Areas dataset. Not all utilities have mapped boundaries.

Population Served

141,127

Municipalities served

Where does BELLINGHAM-WATER DIVISION CITY OF's water come from?

Supply and provider classification from EPA records.

Primary Source
Surface Water
Provider Type
Local Govt
PWSID
WA5305600

Named intake/well source and interconnections (who this utility buys from or sells to) aren't captured yet — tracked separately for a future update.

Is water affordable for BELLINGHAM-WATER DIVISION CITY OF's customers?

Annual bill as a share of median household income in the service area.

Water Burden

1.3% of income (annual)
of median area income · affordability threshold: 2%

We don't yet systematically track whether a utility offers income-based or sliding-scale pricing separate from its standard rates — tracked separately for a future update.

Where did this data come from?

This rate was extracted from BELLINGHAM-WATER DIVISION CITY OF's published tariff document by an AI research agent, then checked against a validation checklist before publishing. See the full methodology for how every utility on this site is sourced and scored.

Provenance

Extracted by: Audit · Claude Opus 5.5 · 10/29/2026
Confidence label: Model verified

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