Water and Sewer Rates in Fort Pierce

Under Resolution UA 2026-04, a Fort Pierce Utilities Authority water account pays a monthly customer charge set by meter size plus $5.29 per 1,000 gallons for use above the gallons included in its minimum charge, beginning March 1, 2026.

The resolution, adopted by the FPUA Board, prints the schedule for meters from 5/8 x 3/4 inch to 10 inch, with the 10 inch customer charge at $2,354.32 (FPUA Resolution UA 2026-04, water rates). It defines the minimum charge as the customer charge plus a volume charge for a fixed number of gallons tied to the meter size, so every Fort Pierce water bill starts at that minimum before any additional usage is counted. The customer charge, also called the readiness-to-serve charge, is a flat monthly amount by meter size, and it continues on an inactive account: the resolution bills it to the property owner when service has been voluntarily disconnected, disconnected for nonpayment or the meter pulled for tampering, but not when the meter was removed from a demolished structure.

The unmetered fire protection column is a separate readiness-to-serve charge for private hydrants, sprinkler systems, hose cabinets, standpipes and other devices used only for fire protection. In Fort Pierce, water delivered through a fire hydrant meter on a temporary basis is billed at the 5/8 x 3/4 inch meter rate unless FPUA staff decide demand or usage warrants a different one (Resolution UA 2026-04).

Residential and commercial customers on 5/8 x 3/4 inch FPUA meters pay a higher conservation rate once monthly use passes 10,000 gallons, and irrigation meters pay $11.16 per 1,000 gallons above 15,000 gallons.

Resolution UA 2026-04 explains the design in words as well as numbers: the conservation charge for Residential and Commercial customers on 5/8 x 3/4 inch meters is 1.25 times the volume charge for usage from 10,001 to 15,000 gallons a month and 1.5 times the volume charge over 15,000 gallons, adopted for the purpose of promoting water conservation (FPUA water rate resolution). The first row of Table W-2 is marked in the resolution as a reference, not an exception, because usage up to 10,000 gallons on that meter is billed at the ordinary $5.29 rate.

Irrigation meters follow their own column, billed on metered use above the gallons included in the minimum charge. The current FPUA Rates and Resolutions page lists Water Irrigation Rates and Water Unmetered Fire Protection as their own headings beside the general Water and Wastewater Rates entry (FPUA Rates and Resolutions).

FPUA wastewater service in Fort Pierce carries a monthly customer charge by water meter size, $22.19 on a 5/8 x 3/4 inch meter, plus a usage charge of $7.95 per 1,000 gallons of metered water use, under Resolution UA 2026-05.

FPUA bills Fort Pierce sewer service on metered water use: a single-family residential account on its own water meter is billed the usage charge on water use up to 10,000 gallons a month, and the maximum monthly wastewater charge for such an account is the customer charge plus the usage charge for up to and including 10,000 gallons (FPUA Resolution UA 2026-05, wastewater rates). Monthly water use above 10,000 gallons therefore does not raise the sewer charge on that kind of Fort Pierce account, and the FPUA residential rate sheet effective 03/01/2026 prints the resulting ceiling for a 5/8 x 3/4 inch meter: the price is capped at $101.69 for 10,001 gallons or more (FPUA Residential Rates sheet, 03/01/2026). A water meter serving more than one single-family unit is billed on total metered use, and standard commercial accounts are billed on 100 percent of monthly metered water.

When a large percentage of the water entering a Fort Pierce commercial establishment will not be discharged to the FPUA sewer, a separate water service and meter may be installed with the Director of Utilities' approval, used as a deduct meter or for a percentage reduction. FPUA requires a signed and sealed letter from a registered professional engineer, sealed drawings of piping and meter locations and, for industrial process flows including cooling tower discharges, an Industrial Pretreatment Permit application; the percentage never applies to customer charges and is subject to periodic review (Resolution UA 2026-05). Where a property gets water from a source other than FPUA, the authority may allow a sewer flow meter or a meter on the alternate supply, which the resolution calls not a preferred method and reviews case by case.

FPUA adds a 10 percent utility tax to its water rate schedules inside the City of Fort Pierce and a 25 percent surcharge to rate schedules for service outside the city limits.

For Fort Pierce sewer, the FPUA residential sheet lists the 25 percent outside-city surcharge and no utility tax line (FPUA Residential Rates sheet, 03/01/2026). For water, both lines appear in the water resolution's tax and surcharge sections, which state that the monthly rate is subject to taxes and assessments by any governmental authority, that unmetered fire protection charges are not subject to the utility tax or surcharge, and that the 10 percent inside-city tax will not exceed the limit in section 166.231, Florida Statutes (Resolution UA 2026-04, sections E and F). That statute lets a Florida municipality levy a public service tax on purchases of electricity, metered gas and water service within the municipality at no more than 10 percent of the payments received by the seller (F.S. 166.231).

The outside-city surcharge rests on section 180.191, which, among the methods it lists, allows a municipal water or sewer utility serving consumers beyond its boundaries to charge the same rates as inside customers plus a surcharge of not more than 25 percent (F.S. 180.191). For a Fort Pierce area home, the city line decides whether the water bill carries the 10 percent tax or the 25 percent surcharge (FPUA Residential Rates sheet, 03/01/2026).

FPUA water and sewer rates can rise once a year by the Florida Public Service Commission annual price index, and the 2026 resolutions apply a 2.23 percent increase based on the 2025 index.

Each 2026 resolution amends and replaces the one before it, UA 2025-03 for water and UA 2025-04 for wastewater (Resolution UA 2026-04; Resolution UA 2026-05). The annual indexing provision traces to Resolution UA 2022-08 for water and UA 2022-09 for wastewater, adopted by the Fort Pierce City Commission on May 16, 2022, which let the FPUA Board apply the index without further action by the City Commission. The index is established by March 31 each year from the U.S. Department of Commerce average Gross Domestic Product Implicit Price Deflator Index for the preceding two years, and an index increase the Board skips in one year does not carry forward to later years.

Customers hear about a proposed increase on the bill itself. Section 180.136, Florida Statutes, requires a local government water or sewer utility to give every customer notice of a proposed rate increase through its billing process, naming the date, time and place of the board meeting where it will be considered (F.S. 180.136), and both FPUA resolutions record that this notice was given.

The index is not the only reason Fort Pierce rates have moved. The FPUA FY 2026 Annual Budget's table of system rate changes over the last ten fiscal years lists three reasons for water and wastewater increases: the FPSC Annual Price Index, Rate Sufficiency and WW Plant Relocation, the last tied to moving the sewer plant, and it notes that no rate changes were implemented in FY 2017 (FPUA FY 2026 Annual Budget, rate changes).

Bulk water and bulk wastewater sold to St. Lucie County, flat-rate sewer for unusual facilities, and private septage rules sit in the same two FPUA resolutions, while septic-to-sewer conversion costs appear only in a dated 2023 bill insert.

Bulk rates come from an interlocal agreement with St. Lucie County enacted through County Ordinance No. 04-023, and its first amendment moves bulk rates at the same time and percentage as FPUA's residential changes. The water resolution sets the bulk water usage charge at the rate of $6.36, effective March 1, 2026, on monthly metered use, without printing a unit on that line (Resolution UA 2026-04, bulk water); the wastewater resolution bills bulk wastewater at $6.70 per 1,000 gallons (Resolution UA 2026-05, bulk wastewater). Any facility outside the standard categories is charged a monthly flat-rate sewer amount set by the Director of Utilities, and FPUA refuses private septage unless it has passed through an FPUA approved pretreatment facility.

For Fort Pierce homes still on septic, the April 2023 FPUA Customer Connections bill insert said the residential cost of converting from septic to sewer was typically around $10,000, including mandatory capital improvement charges, and that grants then allowed connection for as low as $4,000 with Special Payment Arrangements, subject to available funds and other conditions (FPUA April 2023 bill insert). Those are April 2023 figures; the insert directs questions to FPUA Customer Service at 772-466-1600 ext. 3900. The same insert describes moving the wastewater treatment plant off South Hutchinson Island to a site next to the Treasure Coast Energy Center, and the separate Fort Pierce Utilities Authority guide covers that project.