County water and sewer — Indian River County, Florida

Indian River County Utilities, formally the Department of Utility Services or IRCDUS, serves a major portion of the county, including Sebastian, while Vero Beach and Fellsmere run their own water systems and many rural homes rely on wells and septic tanks.

The utility states its own reach in its 2025 water quality report: the county provides water, wastewater and reuse services to a major portion of its population, including the City of Sebastian, and the remaining residents are served by private wells and septic tanks, the City of Vero Beach Utilities or the City of Fellsmere Utilities (IRCDUS water quality report, page 2). A customer of City of Vero Beach Utilities therefore gets a city utility bill, while IRCDUS bills its own customers, Sebastian among them.

The scale is set out in the Stantec rate study of August 22, 2024. IRCDUS provides water to approximately 56,000 retail customers in unincorporated Indian River County at an average of 11.5 million gallons per day, from groundwater wells, two water treatment plants and approximately 900 miles of distribution pipe (IRCDUS rate study, page 5). Its sewer side collects wastewater from approximately 34,000 retail connections through more than 500 miles of mains and sends it to four plants with a combined permitted capacity of 12.02 MGD.

Fellsmere is a split case. The same study notes that IRCDUS provides bulk sewer treatment service to the City of Fellsmere, so Fellsmere's wastewater reaches a county plant even though the city sells water to its own residents. Owners in the Sebastian Highlands or Vero Lake Estates who still have a well and septic tank pay none of the IRCDUS charges below until they connect.

Under the Oct. 1, 2025 IRCDUS schedule, a single family home in Sebastian or the unincorporated county pays a $12.47 water and $24.63 sewer base charge each month plus tiered charges per 1,000 gallons.

The water figures come from the utility's rates FAQ, which lists the new water rates for 1/1/25 and 10/1/25 beside the earlier ones (IRCDUS Rates FAQ, page 1), and the sewer figures from its second page (IRCDUS Rates FAQ, page 2). The rising water tiers reward low use: a Sebastian household that waters a lawn into the 7,001 gallon block pays more than twice the first-tier price for every extra 1,000 gallons.

A typical bill can be worked out from those numbers. At 4,000 gallons on the Oct. 1, 2025 schedule, water is $12.47 plus 4 times $3.14, or $25.03, and sewer is $24.63 plus 4 times $4.51, or $42.67, for a total of $67.70 a month. That matches the study's projected FY 2026 bill for a residential customer with water and sewer at 4,000 gallons, $67.70, up from $60.44 in FY 2025 (IRCDUS rate study, page 11). The rates FAQ puts the same single family bill at $50.67 before January 2025. This page reflects the Oct. 1, 2025 schedule, the latest step shown on the county's rate study site.

IRCDUS raised rates in two steps, on January 1 and October 1, 2025, after a rate study found that the Indian River County utility's old rates could not cover operating costs and aging pipes and plants.

The utility runs on customer bills alone. IRCDUS is an enterprise fund that pays its own way from user rates; the rate study site says no tax money goes into its operations or capital projects, which user fees alone fund (IRCDUS rate study site). The same page summarizes the study's warning for the old rates: annual cash flow deficits beginning in FY 24, rates that no longer fund operating expenses by FY 26, and reserves exhausted in FY 27.

Rates had been flat for a long time. The utility states that IRCDUS did not raise water and sewer rates for 20 years between 1999 and 2019, and that the average annual rate increase since 2021 was 3.25% (IRCDUS Rates Changes). The 2018 study had tied annual indexing to the lower of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers or 3.0%, and IRCDUS implemented various levels of that indexing from FY 2020 through FY 2024 (IRCDUS rate study, page 5).

The study projected the county bill would stay cheaper than its neighbors after the two steps. Stantec reported that, at FY 2024 rates, IRCDUS rates were the lowest of the area's water and sewer providers for a typical user by more than $17 per month, and that IRCDUS would keep the lowest typical residential bill after the FY 2025 and FY 2026 adjustments (IRCDUS rate study, page 11).

Opening an IRCDUS account in Indian River County costs a $25 new account fee plus deposits of $45 for water and $80 for sewer, and a new connection adds meter, tap and impact fees.

The deposit amounts are on the county's schedule of rates, fees and other charges effective January 1, 2025, which lists $45.00 for water and $80.00 for sewer (county rate schedule, page 4). The utility's FAQ describes the change as an overall new charge of $125.00, up from $100.00 (IRCDUS Rates FAQ, page 3). A renter moving into a Sebastian duplex or a Gifford apartment pays the deposit per equivalent residential unit, or ERU.

Builders and owners converting from a well face larger bills. The same IRCDUS schedule lists impact fees of $1,463.00 per ERU for water and $2,624.00 per ERU for sewer, a $90.00 charge for a customer requested reconnect, and a delinquency charge of $2.00 plus 1.5% per month (county rate schedule, page 5). A service call costs $90.00 during business hours and $125.00 after business hours on the same Jan. 1, 2025 schedule (county rate schedule, page 5).

Indian River County code requires owners to connect to available county water and sewer within 60 days of notice from IRCDUS, and it sets how deposits are charged and refunded.

Section 201.02 says the owner of every lot or parcel in the county must connect the plumbing of any building, mobile home or trailer to the county water system and use it within sixty days following notification, and section 201.03 says the same for sewer (County Code chapter 201). Both sections add that no existing structure must connect unless capacity is available, so an existing home in the Sebastian Highlands or elsewhere is not required to connect where capacity is not available.

Deposits follow the IRCDUS account. The code requires a deposit for each water and sewer account opened, transferred to another name or reconnected, based on the number of ERUs, held in a non-interest bearing account and refunded at the final bill less any unpaid amount. Owners who go 24 consecutive months without late fees or a shutoff qualify for a refund before then, and tenants qualify after 60 consecutive months. After a shutoff for nonpayment, the department may require a deposit equal to twice the customer's average monthly bill before reconnecting.

The rates themselves rest on a long chain of resolutions. Indian River County code defines the rate resolution as the schedule of water and sewer rates, fees and other charges that IRCDUS bills under, adopted by Rate Resolution 99-58, effective October 1, 1999, as amended February 12, 2008 and August 18, 2009 and as may be further amended from time to time.

IRCDUS has two customer service offices, in Building A of the County Administration Complex in Vero Beach and at Sebastian Corners Plaza on US Highway 1 in Sebastian.

The Vero Beach Customer Service Office is on the first floor of Building A at 1801 27th Street, with a drive-thru and office both open 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, and the Sebastian Customer Service Office is at Sebastian Corners Plaza, 1921 US Highway 1, open 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (Indian River County Utilities customer service). Both offices share the phone line (772) 770-5300, which also takes bill payments by phone under option 2, and the after-hours emergency number is (772) 231-7176.

Customers of City of Vero Beach Utilities and City of Fellsmere Utilities deal with those city offices instead. Owners on private wells and septic tanks in Roseland, the Sebastian Highlands or elsewhere in the county have no IRCDUS account until a county line reaches them and the 60-day connection notice arrives.

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the Indian River County website.