Water bills cover the costs of supplying drinking water and then treating the wastewater.
The water supply part of your bill pays for the infrastructure, testing and people needed to obtain water, to treat it and to deliver high-quality water to your home. It covers the costs of constructing, maintaining, and replacing the necessary pipes and treatment facilities. For the average residential customer in Waukesha, the water supply charge in 2022 was approximately $36 per month.
In 2018, Waukesha added a return flow charge to pay the costs of building and operating a return flow system. That includes the required 23-mile pipeline that will recycle Lake Michigan water back to the Great Lakes Basin. The average return flow charge in 2022 was approximately $17 per month.
The other half of your water bill is the wastewater charge, which pays for collecting and treating the wastewater you generate and then returning it to the environment as clean water. The average wastewater charge was approximately $42 per month in 2022.
In all, the total water bill for Waukesha residential customers with an average monthly water usage of 4,000 gallons added up to about $95 per month in 2022.