Barrow County Utilities Water and Sewer Rates for Homes (FY2026)

Which homes this applies to

Barrow County Utilities serves customers across the county from its office at 59 Lee Street in Winder. The rate document, labelled FY2026 and effective July 1, 2025, says the rates remain in effect until June 30, 2026 and continue beyond that date unless replaced by another rate resolution or amendment.

If your bill comes from the City of Winder instead, the City's own 2026-2027 sheet applies. The bill header tells you which. The two utilities price water differently, and the leak rules are different too.

The county document includes separate rate schedules by wastewater treatment plant, including Tanners Bridge, Barber Creek and Cedar Creek. The residential lines summarised here come from the single-family residential schedule; check that your service area matches.

The water tiers

Single-family residential water is billed at $6.10 per 1,000 gallons for the first 2,000, $7.75 per 1,000 from 2,001 to 9,000, and $9.75 per 1,000 above 9,000. A 3/4-inch meter carries a base water charge of $12.00 a month.

Compared with the City of Winder's sheet, the county's first tier is higher and its upper tiers lower, so a leak costs less per gallon on a county bill than on a City bill at the same usage.

Most of a typical household's use falls in the middle tier, so the marginal cost of a leak in a normal month is $7.75 per 1,000 gallons until the total passes 9,000.

Sewer

Sewer is billed at $6.15 per 1,000 gallons, with a base sewer charge of $17.00 a month. The document adds that customers served by pump stations pay an additional O&M charge of $5.00 a month.

The county sheet does not show a sewer cap like the City's 12,000-gallon single-family limit, so on a county bill a leak adds sewer charges for every gallon unless an adjustment applies. Ask the county how leaked water that never reached the sewer is handled.

Worked examples on 4,000 gallons of normal use are below; a 10,000-gallon leak adds about $149.00 including sewer.

Account and service fees

The county fee schedule lists a late fee of $2.00 or 10%, whichever is greater; disconnection for non-payment at $25.00; after-hours meter turn-on at $75.00; a customer-requested meter re-read at $50.00; a customer-requested meter test at $75.00; and turning water on or off for a home inspection at $50.00.

The voluntary Leak Adjustment Program is listed at $0.70 per month. See the program page for what to ask about it.

If you need water off after hours to stop a leak, use your house shut-off valve first. The after-hours turn-on fee applies when the meter has to be turned back on outside normal hours.

Replacement, transfer and testing charges

The fee schedule also prices damage. A damaged or broken water meter is $400.00 to replace; a meter box lid $45.00; a meter box and lid $75.00; a register $240.00. A customer account transfer is $50.00 and a returned check $35.00.

BacT testing, a bacteria test of the water, is $75.00 per sample location with a $100.00 delivery fee.

Construction near the meter is where most damage happens. Mark the box before digging and tell every contractor where it is.

New meters

For a new single-family 3/4-inch meter, the schedule lists a $100 account deposit fee, connection fees of $3,120.00 water and $4,965.00 sewer when county installed, or $2,400.00 each when self installed, plus system development and capacity charges of $1,200.00 water and $5,500.00 sewer.

Self-installed taps mean a contractor does the tap work; ask the county what it requires before choosing that route.

The City of Winder's equivalents are on the connection fee page.

Reading a Winder-area bill line by line

Start at the top of the bill and find the name of the utility. City of Winder bills follow the City's Form 520 rate sheet; Barrow County Utilities bills follow the county's FY2026 schedule. Everything else on this site depends on getting that first step right, because the two utilities use different tiers, different base charges and different leak rules.

Next, find the reading dates and the gallons used. Divide the gallons by the number of days in the cycle to get a daily figure, and compare it with the same cycle a year earlier. A household that normally uses a little over a hundred gallons a day and suddenly shows several hundred has either changed its habits or has water going somewhere it should not.

Then look at the charges. The base water and base sewer lines do not move with use. The volume lines do. If the volume lines jumped and the base lines did not, the change is in gallons, not in rates, and the meter test on the high bill page is the next step.

Finally, note the due date. On a City of Winder account, the 30-day window to contest a bill runs from that date, and a missed window cannot be reopened by the policy's own terms.

Keeping records that make every later step easier

Most of the trouble homeowners describe after a plumbing problem is not the repair itself but the paperwork around it: a leak credit request without an invoice, a permit nobody can find at resale, a disputed meter reading with no photo. A simple folder fixes most of it.

Keep the bill that showed the problem and the one before it. Take a dated photo of the meter dial when you first notice something odd and again after the repair. Ask the plumber for an invoice that names the address, the date, where the problem was and exactly what was replaced. If a permit was pulled, keep the permit number and the final inspection result.

Write down every call to the utility or the permit office: the date, the person's name and what they said. Policies change, and staff answers are easier to rely on when you can quote them back.

None of this costs money, and every piece of it helps if you later need a credit, sell the house or have to show an insurer when a problem started.

Sources: Barrow County, GA Utilities Department: Water and Wastewater Rates FY2026 (PDF). Checked 2026-10-30.