Union County, North Carolina

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Request form: 704-296-4210
(M-F, 8am - 5pm)

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Use your bank’s bill pay service:

Choose Union County as electronic payee and use mailing address:

P.O. Box 580194

Charlotte, NC 28258-0194

Mail in payment:

Union County Public Works

P.O. Box 580194

Charlotte, NC 28258-0194

Pay in-person:

Union County Tax Office

500 N. Main St.

Monroe, NC 28112

Drop-box:

W. Crowell St. near Government Center in a silver drop box

Understanding Your Bill Video

Account Information

Account Number - Your account number has two components: the number before the asterisk (*) identifies the property and the number after the asterisk, referred to as the occupant code, identifies the current occupant.

Cycle - The cycle number determines the date of the month your meter is read. The cycle number also determines which days of the week you can irrigate your lawn.

Summary of Payments and Charges

Previous Balance -Total amount due as of your last bill.

Payment - Payments received since your last billing.

Miscellaneous Charges/Credits - A cumulative total which can include late penalties, disconnect processing fees, irrigation variance charges, leak credits, billing adjustments and other charges or credits.

Past Due Balance - A subtotal of previous balance, any payments received and miscellaneous charges/credits.

Current Charges - Water and/or sewer charges incurred during the current billing cycle.

Total Amount Due - Total of past due balance and current charges.

Meter Reading Information

Meter Number - A unique serial number that identifies each water meter assigned to a specific account. Irrigation meters typically start with an ‘I.'

Read Date - The date the meter was read for the current bill cycle and for the last bill.

Billing Days - The number of days included in this billing period which is the difference between the previous and present read dates. Billing days can range between 28 and 32 days per cycle.

Meter Readings - The total number of gallons that have passed through the meter as of the read dates, typically represented in hundreds of gallons.

Usage - The amount of water used, in gallons, for the billing period. Usage is calculated by subtracting the previous meter reading from the present meter reading times the multiplier shown, typically 100. Meter readings are rounded to the nearest 100 gallons. Your rounded usage amount is displayed in the usage section of the bill.

Details of Current Charges

Current charges have three components:

• Fixed monthly base facilities charges;
• Gallonage charges;
• Other charges.

Fixed Monthly Base Facilities Charges - The fixed monthly base facilities charges are determined by the size of your meter. There is a base facilities charge associated with each service. These charges cover a portion of the utility’s fixed costs associated with providing your services including such things as debt payments, labor, meter reading and bill processing.

Gallonage Charges – Union County utilizes what is known as an “inclining block rate structure” in our gallonage charge. In this structure, for each increasing “block” of consumption, the customer is charged at a higher rate, so the more water you use the higher the rate you pay for that water. Our rate consists of five blocks, or tiers, of water consumption.

• Tier I is for the first 3,000 gallons/month of usage.
• Tier II is for the next 4,000 gallons of usage (3,001 to 7,000 gallons).
• Tier III is for the next 3,000 gallons (7,001 to 10,000 gallons).
• Tier IV is for the next 5,000 gallons (10,001 to 15,000 gallons).
• Tier V is for all consumption above 15,000 gallons, per month.

This inclining rate structure is designed to promote water conservation and to also have those customers that use the most water pay their proportionate share of the cost of providing the infrastructure necessary to meet these higher levels of demand.

Our tiered rates apply to individually-metered residential customers including conventional single-family homes and apartments, condominiums and townhouses that have individually metered residential units.

For a complete description of our current rates, please refer to the drop-down menu on at the top of this page.

Example:

The customer in this example used a total of 20,600 gallons of water (Usage). Their gallonage charge for the month would be:

Tier 1 rate is $2.20/1,000 gallons: the first 3,000 gallons of water used are charged at a rate of $2.20 per 1,000 gallons.

$2.20 x 3 (thousand gallons) = $6.60

Tier2 rate is $3.00/1,000 gallons: the next 4,000 gallons of water use are charged a rate of $3.00 per 1,000 gallons.

$3.00 x 4 (thousand gallons) = $12.00

Tier 3 rate is $4.25/1,000 gallons: the next 3,000 gallons of water use were charged a rate of $4.25 per 1,000 gallons.

$4.25 x 3 (thousand gallons) = $12.75

Tier 4 rate is $6.20/1,000 gallons. The next 5,000 gallons of water use were charged a rate of $6.20 per 1,000 gal.

$6.20 x 5 (thousand gallons) = $31.00

Tier 5 rate is $10.10/1,000 gallons. In this example the customer used 5,600 gallons at the rate above 15,000 gallons per month.

$10.10 x 5.6 (thousand gallons) = $56.56

Total Gallonage Charge = $118.91

In this example, the cost of the last 5,600 gallons of water used was more than the entire cost of the fist 15,000 gallons.

Sewer Usage Charge

Sewer usage is not separately metered; it is based upon your water consumption. Residential sewer usage is capped at 12,000 gallons. That is, if an individually-metered residential customer uses more than 12,000 gallons of water in a month, we bill for only 12,000 gallons of sewer service. For the example above, though the resident used 20,600 of water, only 12,000 gallons of sewer was billed. 12,000 gal X $5.30 =12,000 gallons of sewer service were charged at a rate of $5.30 per 1,000 gallons.

$5.30 x 12 (thousand gallons) = $63.60

Total Sewer Gallonage Charge = $63.60

To begin service with Union County Public Works, please complete the attached 3 page application. Each individual responsible for the account must sign the second page of the application and provide a copy of their photo identification.

Application for
Water/Sewer Connection

Please call 704-296-4210 immediately to report a water outage, sewer backup, overflow or other utility-related EMERGENCY. On call service is available 24 hours per day for emergency situations only.