Your water bill just went up. Here's the math, line by line.

What the council did

On September 24, the Baytown City Council took up an ordinance "amending the City of Baytown utility rates." It was published as Ordinance No. 16,602. The city's agenda memo gave the reason in one line: the increase responds to "the increased cost of wholesale water, maintenance, supplies, equipment and personnel costs." The memo ties the new money to the FY2027 budget and to the council's goal of investing in "the highest quality infrastructure."

The ordinance says the new rates "take effect for all billings occurring on or after the first full billing cycle after October 1, 2026." In plain terms, your first bill on the new rates is the first one covering a full cycle that starts after October 1.

How a Baytown water bill is built

A Baytown water bill is not one number. It is stacked from pieces, and each piece moved.

For a single-family home inside the city with its own meter, water starts with two flat monthly charges, a base charge and a customer charge. Then you pay for each 1,000 gallons, in three steps that get more expensive the more you use. Sewer works the same way, with its own base charge, its own customer charge and its own steps, except that sewer stops charging after 12,000 gallons.

Here is what changed for an inside-city home:

• Water base charge: $8.34 before, $8.72 now.
• Water customer charge: $4.01 before, $4.19 now.
• Water, first 2,000 gallons: $3.89 per 1,000 before, $4.07 now.
• Water, the next 4,000 gallons: $7.52 per 1,000 before, $7.86 now.
• Water, over 6,000 gallons: $10.38 per 1,000 before, $10.85 now.
• Sewer base charge: $9.69 before, $10.89 now.
• Sewer customer charge: $4.65 before, $5.23 now.
• Sewer, first 2,000 gallons: $3.59 per 1,000 before, $4.04 now.
• Sewer, the next 10,000 gallons: $8.09 per 1,000 before, $9.09 now.

The earlier rates come from the city's code as it stood under the previous ordinance, No. 16,277. The new ones come from the ordinance the council took up in September.

The math for a typical month

Take a home that uses 5,000 gallons in a month. On water, it pays the two flat charges, then 2,000 gallons at the first step and 3,000 at the second. That came to $42.69 before and comes to $44.63 now.

On sewer, the same home pays its two flat charges, then 2,000 gallons at the first step and 3,000 at the second. That came to $45.79 before and comes to $51.47 now.

The sewer side of the bill is where most of the increase lands, and the flat charges rose along with the per-gallon ones.

Together, $88.48 becomes $96.10. That is $7.62 a month, or a little over $91 a year, before garbage, recycling and the drainage charge, which are separate lines on the same bill.

Why sewer rose more

At 5,000 gallons, water goes up about 4.5 percent and sewer about 12.4 percent. The sewer side of the bill is where most of the increase lands, and the flat charges rose along with the per-gallon ones. The sewer base charge alone went up $1.20 a month, more than the whole water base and customer charges combined rose.

That matters most to households that use little water. A retiree living alone pays the same flat charges as a family of five, so the flat-charge increase is a bigger share of a small bill.

Living outside the city line

Customers outside the city limits pay more. Under the new ordinance, an outside-city home pays a water base charge of $13.08 and a customer charge of $6.29, then $5.24, $11.80 and $16.27 per 1,000 gallons across the three steps. Outside-city sewer is $16.33 base and $7.86 customer, then $6.05 and $13.65 per 1,000 gallons, with no charge after 12,000.

What you can do about it

You can't vote on the bill now; the council has acted. You can control the part of it that runs through your meter. The per-gallon steps rise sharply after 6,000 gallons for water, from $7.86 to $10.85 per 1,000, so a leaking toilet or a sprinkler running long in August costs more than it used to. The city's Utility Services office, at 315 West Texas Avenue, can tell you which schedule your account uses.

See how this bill compares with 15 other Texas cities: Baytown's water bill vs. the neighbors.

See where the federal sewer case stands and what it could mean for the bill: Baytown's sewer case: four years of talks, and what it means for your bill.

Sources

• City of Baytown, City Council meeting of September 24, 2026, agenda item 7.h, "Consider an ordinance amending the City of Baytown utility rates" (https://public.destinyhosted.com/agenda_publish.cfm?id=22986&mt=ALL&get_month=9&get_year=2026&dsp=agm&seq=28632&rev=0&ag=3851&ln=81065)
• City of Baytown, Ordinance FY27 Utility Rates, attachment to item 7.h (https://public.destinyhosted.com/baytodocs/2026/CC%20Regular/20260910_3843/28632_Adopting%20FY27%20Utility%20Rates%2009.02.26.pdf)
• City of Baytown Code of Ordinances, Chapter 98, Sec. 98-59 and Sec. 98-91, rates under Ordinance No. 16,277 (https://library.municode.com/tx/baytown/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH98UT_ARTIIIWASE_S98-59RA)
• Notice of Ordinance No. 16,602, City of Baytown (https://www.noticeregistry.com/texas/notice/ordinance-baytown-956022)

En español

Desde el primer ciclo completo de facturación después del 1 de octubre de 2026, el agua y el alcantarillado cuestan más en Baytown. Para una casa dentro de la ciudad que usa 5,000 galones al mes, el cobro combinado pasa de $88.48 a $96.10, unos $7.62 más al mes. El agua sube cerca de 4.5 por ciento y el alcantarillado cerca de 12.4 por ciento. La ciudad dice que el aumento cubre el costo más alto del agua al por mayor, el mantenimiento, los materiales, el equipo y el personal. Los cargos fijos también subieron, así que el aumento pesa más en las cuentas pequeñas. Revise las fugas: después de 6,000 galones, cada 1,000 galones de agua cuestan $10.85.