Services & Billings

Your Water Service

Escanaba Water Utility is responsible for water mains and services in the public streets and easements up to the shut off valve for a property. The customer is responsible for service lines from the street valve to the house and for all plumbing in the house except the water meter, which is maintained by the Escanaba Water Utility.

The single most important thing to know about your water service is the location of your inside shutoff valve. This valve is located just ahead of the water meter inside the home (usually in the basement). The small meter located on the outside near the electric meter is only a remote reader for the water meter installed in the main pipe entering the home.

The Water Bill

The City of Escanaba Utility Billing Department sends out a monthly bill for electricity, garbage, wastewater and drinking water all located on a single post card type mailer. Each charge on the bill is identified with a code. Your cost for drinking water is coded "WR".

Monthly charges for drinking water are calculated in two parts. The first is a flat charge referred to as the availability charge which reflects the utility’s cost to keep drinking water available even if none is being used and is based upon your meter size. The second part is referred to as the commodity charge based upon the metered amount of water used and reflects the utility’s unit cost to treat the water. The two parts are added together to become your monthly water bill.

Other charges apply for special service such as stand by fire systems and temporary construction service. There is a monthly fee for use of fire hydrants for temporary water service. Please call our office for this monthly charge, deposit, and usage charge.

Customer Services

Escanaba Municipal Water Utility is committed to providing assistance to our customers to help solve problems in their water supply and protect water quality. Typical assistance we can provide:

• Help to identify cause and solution to low pressure problems.
• Investigate unusual tastes and odors.
• Investigate colored water problems.
• Conduct cross connection control surveys to identify contamination sources in the home.
• Turn water off/on for repairs.
• Look into metering problems.
• Locate water lines for excavation.
• Water analysis in our laboratory.
• Help to access outside laboratories for water analysis.