Water and sewer rates — Palm Bay, Florida

A typical Palm Bay home on a 5/8 x 3/4 inch meter pays fixed base facility charges of $16.44 for water and $26.23 for sewer each month inside the city, before any gallons are counted (Palm Bay Residential Rates).

Those figures come from the Residential Schedule of Water / Sewer Rates that Palm Bay Utilities lists as effective October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 (Residential Rates and Charges). Every Palm Bay Utilities bill has two layers: a base facility charge set by meter size and location, and a usage charge per 1,000 gallons. The base charge is owed even in a month with no water use, which is why a Palm Bay house left empty all summer still receives a bill.

Water and sewer are not the only lines on a Palm Bay statement. The city bills water and sewer accounts monthly by cycle, and those bills also include stormwater and sanitation costs (Palm Bay Billing and Payments). Trash collected by Republic Services and the stormwater utility fee are set under separate chapters of the Palm Bay Code of Ordinances, so they are left to their own pages here; the water and sewer rules sit in Chapter 200 Utilities Code and Chapter 201 Sewer Use (Palm Bay Rates, Charges and Fees).

Palm Bay Utilities bills residential water in four rising blocks, from $4.20 per 1,000 gallons for the first 5,000 gallons to $9.42 per 1,000 gallons above 15,000 gallons inside the city (Palm Bay Residential Rates).

Each Palm Bay block applies only to the gallons that fall inside it, so a household that uses 8,000 gallons pays the Block 1 price on its first 5,000 gallons and the Block 2 price on the next 3,000. The step from Block 1 to Block 4 more than doubles the price per 1,000 gallons inside Palm Bay ($4.20 against $9.42).

Sewer is priced differently in Palm Bay. There is one sewer usage rate, $7.62 per 1,000 gallons inside the city, $9.53 outside the city and $8.38 in the Town of Malabar, and the residential sewer usage charge is only charged for a maximum of 10,000 gallons per month (Residential Rates and Charges). For a one-off event such as filling a swimming pool, the Palm Bay Start / Stop / Transfer Service page also offers a Pool Fill Credit Request form (Start / Stop / Transfer Service).

At the October 2026 rates, a Palm Bay home inside the city on a 5/8 x 3/4 inch meter that uses 5,000 gallons in a month owes $101.77 for water and sewer, arithmetic from the published schedule (Palm Bay Residential Rates).

The city does not publish these totals; they are worked from the Palm Bay Utilities schedule line by line. Two patterns stand out. Sewer is the larger share in every row of the table, because the sewer base and sewer usage rates both sit above their water equivalents. And past 10,000 gallons only the water side keeps climbing, so the 12,000 gallon row carries no more sewer charge than a 10,000 gallon month would.

Paying the bill can add a little more in Palm Bay. Since June 22, 2026, card payments to Palm Bay Utilities carry a fee of 3.5% or a $2.95 minimum, and electronic check payments carry a flat $1.95 (Billing and Payments).

Palm Bay Utilities charges customers outside Palm Bay city limits more because Florida law lets a city add a surcharge of up to 25 percent for service beyond its boundaries (Section 180.191, Florida Statutes).

Palm Bay Utilities provides water, wastewater and reclaimed water service to residents of Palm Bay and the Town of Malabar (About Palm Bay Utilities), and the rate schedule gives those outside customers their own columns. Under section 180.191, a city running a water or sewer utility outside its boundaries may charge the inside rates plus a surcharge of not more than 25 percent, or a just and equitable rate plus a surcharge of up to 25 percent whose total is no more than 50 percent above the inside charge, fixed only after a public hearing. Chapter 2026-135, Laws of Florida, rewrites that subsection effective July 1, 2027: the first option becomes the same rates as inside customers with no surcharge, and the second may run no more than 25 percent above inside rates, again after a public hearing (Section 180.191, Florida Statutes).

The Palm Bay numbers line up with that ceiling. Dividing the published figures, the outside-city sewer base of $32.79 is 25 percent above the $26.23 inside rate, while the outside water base of $18.08 and the Town of Malabar sewer base of $28.85 each run about 10 percent above the inside charges of $16.44 and $26.23 (arithmetic on the Palm Bay Residential Rates page). The same 10 percent spread shows in the water blocks, where $4.62 outside the city compares with $4.20 inside.

Because the City of Palm Bay runs its Utilities Department as an enterprise fund without property tax support, customer rates have to pay the full cost of the water and sewer systems, and they change every October 1 (Palm Bay Start / Stop / Transfer Service).

In the city's own description, revenue from customer service is the only money the utility runs on, so rates have to pay for running, maintaining, repairing and financing both systems. Each year the budget process includes a review of the Utilities Department's financial position, with a formal rate study every five years or as warranted. The same Palm Bay page adds that no free service shall be provided to any customer.

Those rates pay for a sizable system: over 34,000 accounts in a service area of approximately 44 square miles, supplied by 41 raw water supply wells, a 10.0 MGD lime-softening plant and a reverse osmosis treatment plant listed at 5.5 MGD (Water, Wastewater, Reclaimed Water). The South Regional Water Treatment Facility, a 4.0 MGD reverse osmosis plant constructed in 2006, helps meet demand from customers in the southern area of the city.

The 2024-2025 column comes from an Internet Archive copy of the same Palm Bay Utilities page (archived Residential Rates and Charges). On those two schedules, the inside-city sewer base rose $0.95 and sewer usage rose $0.28 per 1,000 gallons, while the published water base figure is $0.22 lower on the current page. One labeling oddity is worth knowing: the Palm Bay Non-Residential Rates page shows the same base and block numbers as the current residential schedule, but under a heading that reads effective October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024 (Non-Residential Rates and Charges). Customer Care at 120 Malabar Road SE, (321) 952-3420, can confirm which figures apply to a given Palm Bay account (Contact Utilities Customer Care).

Commercial, multi-family, government and institutional accounts in Palm Bay use the same per-gallon prices as homes, but their base charges climb with meter size to $2,877.31 for water and $4,590.69 for wastewater on a 12 inch meter inside the city (Palm Bay Non-Residential Rates).

The Palm Bay block thresholds widen with the meter, so a larger connection buys more gallons at the Block 1 price before the higher blocks start. A 2 inch meter reaches Block 4 only above 120,000 gallons. Non-residential sewer usage is billed at the same $7.62 inside-city rate, and the page does not carry the 10,000 gallon residential sewer cap.

Deposits also follow meter size in Palm Bay. A business account needs $190.00 for water and $260.00 for wastewater on a 1 inch meter and $500.00 and $700.00 on a 2 inch meter (Non-Residential Rates and Charges). Residential accounts pay $100.00 each for water and wastewater on a 3/4 inch or 1 inch meter plus a $30 solid waste deposit, refundable after 36 months of timely payments (Residential Rates and Charges). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay Utilities website.