City of Winder Water and Sewer Rates, July 2026 to June 2027

Volume water rates

Residential water is billed in three tiers: $3.86 per 1,000 gallons for the first 2,000, $10.29 per 1,000 from 2,001 to 6,999, and $11.58 per 1,000 from 7,000 up. The sheet is labelled Form 520 and runs from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.

The jump from the first tier to the second is steep: the 2,001st gallon costs more than two and a half times the first. Most households pass 2,000 gallons, so their marginal rate, the rate on any extra water including a leak, is $10.29 or $11.58.

The sheet also notes that the City is not responsible for repairs or leaks on lines leaving the meter, including leaking toilets, faucets and private lines under a structure or inside walls and ceilings. Everything on the house side is the owner's to fix.

Base charges and zones

Every account pays a monthly base water charge by line size. For a 5/8 to 3/4 inch line it is $21.87 in water zone w1 and $32.41 in zones w5, w6 and w7.

Sewer has its own zones. Residential sewer volume is $6.43 per 1,000 gallons in zone S1 and $8.52 in zone S5, with base sewer charges of $24.80 and $42.33. The City says zone assignments follow its water and sewer rate maps.

Your bill shows which zones apply. If you are not sure, ask the City before using the calculator, since the S5 sewer rate is noticeably higher.

The 12,000-gallon sewer cap

Single-family residential units are billed up to a maximum of 12,000 gallons of sewer per billing cycle. Above that, extra water is charged as water only.

For a household using 4,000 gallons, that means a leak adds sewer charges only for its first 8,000 gallons. For a large leak, the water side keeps growing at $11.58 per 1,000 while sewer stops.

The cap applies to single-family units. Multi-family and commercial accounts follow the regular sewer rates.

Service charges that touch plumbing work

The rate sheet's service charges include a $50 new account connection, a $25 reconnection when not due to non-payment, a $50 delinquent charge for non-payment, a $30 NSF check fee, $135 for meter damage and $185 for Smart Point device damage. Temporary disconnection due to repair is listed at no charge.

That last line matters for plumbing: if your house valve fails and a plumber needs the water off at the meter, the City lists that service as free.

Details on the service fee page.

Connection and relocation fees

New service carries connection fees and system development charges. For a 5/8 to 3/4 inch water line, the full connection is $5,000 and the SDC is $3,289. A 4-inch sewer stub full connection is $5,000, which includes one ERU.

Moving an existing meter has its own schedule, from $1,419.28 for a short-side 3/4 inch relocation to $2,383.04 long side.

See connection fees and meter relocation.

Barrow County customers

Barrow County Utilities customers in the Winder area use the county's FY2026 schedule instead: $6.10, $7.75 and $9.75 per 1,000 gallons in tiers, sewer at $6.15, base charges of $12.00 water and $17.00 sewer.

See the county rate page.

The calculator handles both.

Meter moves on the same sheet

The same Form 520 sheet carries the City's meter relocation schedule: $1,419.28 on the short side and $2,383.04 on the long side for a 5/8 to 3/4 inch line. Those figures matter more than most people expect when a driveway, garage or addition lands on top of an existing meter.

See the relocation page for the full schedule and the plumbing work on the house side.

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.

Why the tiers matter for a household

Tiered rates reward low use and charge more for every gallon above each line. In Winder the first 2,000 gallons are cheap and the gallons above them are not, so a household's marginal rate, the cost of one more gallon, is set by the middle and upper tiers.

That has a practical effect: fixing a small leak, a dripping outdoor spigot or an over-long irrigation schedule saves money at the higher rates, not the lower one. It also means two households with the same leak can see different costs if their normal use places them in different tiers.

Sources: City of Winder, GA: Water & Sewer Rates, effective July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027 (Form 520, PDF); Barrow County, GA Utilities Department: Water and Wastewater Rates FY2026 (PDF). Checked 2026-10-30.