Tampa Water Service: Rates, Deposits and Where the Water Comes From

The City of Tampa Water Department is the retail water utility for Tampa and parts of unincorporated Hillsborough County, serving more than 733,000 people across a 220 square mile service area (Tampa Water Department, About Us).

Billing runs through City of Tampa Utilities, and its rates page offers a property address search that shows who provides water, wastewater and solid waste service at a location (City of Tampa Utilities). When the search shows another provider, the page links three neighbors: Hillsborough County Water and Sewer, Pasco County Utilities and Temple Terrace Water and Sewer. Customers who live outside Tampa city limits but get City of Tampa water pay slightly higher rates.

A single Tampa area property can get more than one utility bill. The city explains that a location with City of Tampa water but Hillsborough County wastewater and solid waste receives two separate bills, one from each provider (City of Tampa, Start Service). Trash pickup has its own boundary: Tampa Solid Waste serves only customers inside city limits south of Fowler Avenue, and it excludes the University of South Florida and New Tampa areas.

Behind the taps sit more than 2,200 miles of water mains and more than 14,000 fire hydrants, kept up by a Tampa Water Department staff of more than 300 (Tampa Water Department). The city's rates page gives a lower population figure, over 725,000 residents in the service area (Rates, Deposits, and Fees). Weekday questions go to the Utilities Call Center at (813) 274-8811 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; for a water emergency outside those hours, including weekends and city holidays, the number is (813) 274-7400 (Tampa Water Department).

Where a water meter already exists, Tampa water service is started online through Tampa Connect or by calling the Utilities Call Center at (813) 274-8811, and the city asks for up to 5 business days to process it (City of Tampa, Start Service).

A new Tampa account gets a 7-digit account number, sent by e-mail for online requests or given by phone for call center requests (Start Service). That number, the account name and the billing ZIP code unlock online account access; for a residential account the name is typed last name first, exactly as printed on the bill. A property being developed or redeveloped without a meter follows the separate Install New Water Line process, and the Water Commitment team answers at (813) 274-7405.

Stopping Tampa service before a move works the same two ways, online through Tampa Connect or by calling (813) 274-8811, again with up to 5 business days for processing, and the final bill is mailed to the forwarding address (City of Tampa, Stop Service). The city warns that a household with several providers has to call each one listed on its bills, or it can keep paying charges after the move-out date.

A practical timing point: because both requests can take up to 5 business days, a Tampa move scheduled for a Monday is safer requested the week before. The Stop Service page was last updated March 24, 2026 (City of Tampa).

Every new City of Tampa Utilities account requires a deposit that varies by account type and meter size, and the rates page does not print the dollar amounts (Rates, Deposits, and Fees).

The deposit can be waived. A new Tampa customer may be exempt if a written statement of good credit history from another utility company reaches the city within 30 days of the original request (City of Tampa Utilities FAQs). City of Tampa Code Section 26-27.1 defines good credit history over the preceding twelve consecutive months: service never discontinued for a delinquent bill, no check returned for nonpayment, and no more than one instance of a delinquent payment of a bill.

The letter can be sent through Tampa Connect, mailed to the Utilities Call Center at 3402 W Columbus Dr, Tampa, FL 33607, or faxed to (813) 274-8430 (Utilities FAQs). The West Columbus Drive office is a mailing address only; the city says it is not accessible to the public.

Connection and service fees are a different charge from the deposit. Tampa uses them to pay for added water and wastewater capacity, and they can apply when developing land that was never built on, increasing a meter size or the number of plumbing fixture units, changing a property's use or occupancy, or adding an accessory dwelling unit (City of Tampa Utilities).

For FY27, from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, a single-family Tampa home inside city limits pays a $9.00 monthly water base charge plus tiered water rates that start at $3.59 per ccf (City of Tampa FY27 residential rate schedule).

Source: Residential Water and Wastewater Rate Schedule, effective October 1, 2026. One ccf is 100 cubic feet, the same as 748 gallons. Apartments use narrower tiers, 0 to 2 ccf per dwelling unit at the first rate, and a $6.75 base charge per unit inside the city. Larger meters carry larger base charges: $22.50 for a 1 inch meter and $72.00 for a 2 inch meter inside Tampa.

The base charges are on a set climb. Tampa introduced them on Oct. 1, 2019 at $2 each for water and wastewater, and residential base charges are scheduled to rise $1 a year through October 2033 (City of Tampa Utilities FAQs), which is how the FY27 figure reached $9.00. Every water, irrigation and wastewater schedule changes on October 1 each year (Rates, Deposits, and Fees).

For a sense of scale, the Water Department says the average single-family Tampa home used 8 ccf a month over the last three years (Tampa Water Department), while the utilities FAQ says the average resident uses about 3 ccf and a family of four about 12 ccf, roughly 9,000 gallons (Utilities FAQs). The two figures measure different things, per home and per person; the 8 ccf home average and the 12 ccf family of four estimate both fall in the 6 to 13 ccf tier. Single-family homes without an irrigation well, reclaimed meter or separate irrigation meter may qualify for the lawn credit, or sewer max, which caps wastewater charges.

Most Tampa tap water starts in the Hillsborough River and is treated at the city water treatment plant, and the city buys from Tampa Bay Water only when the river cannot meet demand (Tampa Water Department).

That plant, the David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility, can produce up to 120 million gallons in a single day at peak and averages 82 million gallons a day over a year, and up to 1.2 billion gallons of excess water can be stored in the city's Aquifer Storage and Recovery System for later use (About Us, Water). In extended or extreme dry periods, Tampa buys treated regional groundwater, surface water and desalinated seawater from Tampa Bay Water.

Tampa Bay Water is the wholesale supplier for Hillsborough County, Pasco County, Pinellas County, New Port Richey, St. Petersburg and Tampa, more than 2.6 million people in all, and a nine-member board of elected officials sets its policy (About Tampa Bay Water). It was created in 1998 out of the West Coast Regional Water Supply Authority. One of its supplies is the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant beside Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station, which provides up to 25 million gallons a day (Tampa Bay Water).

Those purchases show up on Tampa bills. The Tampa Bay Water Pass-Through Charge recovers the difference between what the city pays Tampa Bay Water and what it costs to produce water at its own facilities; it is charged only when the city buys water, is priced from the previous 3-month period of purchases, and appears as a separate, taxed line item (City of Tampa Utilities FAQs).

Why that matters this fall: the Southwest Florida Water Management District extended its Modified Phase III one-day-a-week watering limits through March 31, 2027, after a 12-month rainfall deficit of 15.4 inches through August 2026, and it reported the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir at 7.87 billion gallons on Sept. 20, about half its capacity (SWFWMD, District Water Restrictions). In a dry stretch like that, a pass-through line on a Tampa bill is a sign the city is drawing on regional water.

The Tampa Water Department posts its annual Water Quality Report, also called the Consumer Confidence Report, online in English and Spanish, and the 2025 report is the most recent publication (Tampa Water Department, Annual Water Quality Reports).

The report is prepared under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and Florida law requires each calendar year's report to be available to the public by July 1 of the following year, so the 2026 report is due by July 1, 2027 (Annual Water Quality Reports). The 2024 and 2023 Tampa reports stay posted, and a printed copy of the current report can be requested.

The department also says that, in accordance with a 2025 state law, it no longer adds fluoride to Tampa drinking water (Tampa Water Department). Each year, the Tampa production process includes the analysis of about 9,000 water samples to meet or exceed federal and state standards (About Us, Water).

Water quality questions, outages and hydrant leaks go to the same Utilities Call Center at (813) 274-8811 during business hours (City of Tampa Utilities). Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the City of Tampa Utilities and Water Department pages, the FY27 rate schedule, Tampa Bay Water and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.