Spring Hill water and sewer bills: how they work, what they cost and the sewer moratorium

Who bills you

If you live in the city’s water service area, your bill comes from the city’s Utility Billing Department at City Hall, which, per the city, handles monthly water, sewer, garbage, recycling and stormwater fees on one statement. The city’s water comes from the Duck River, and its wastewater plant discharges treated water back to the river, the city explains.

Not every Spring Hill address works that way. The city shares territory with neighboring water utilities. Its own code sets a $750 territorial charge when it connects a property that falls inside the boundaries of the H.B. & T.S. Utility District, a Williamson County nonprofit that has provided drinking water since 1968 in Hillsboro, Burwood and Thompson’s Station. We could not find a published map of who serves which streets. If you aren’t sure, your most recent bill answers it, and Utility Billing can confirm an address.

Columbia comes up for two reasons. Its utility sells water at wholesale to Spring Hill and other systems, the Tennessee Lookout reported, and it is the planned destination for some of Spring Hill’s wastewater (see the sewer section). Columbia also raised its water rates by up to 20% a year for five years, which its utility said will affect its own customers and the other systems that buy from it. The vote came up in Columbia’s city election, as we noted in our election results post. We haven’t seen Spring Hill say it will pass any of that on to its bills, and the city’s July 2026 rate announcement doesn’t mention it.

Next door in Thompson’s Station, water is also from H.B. & T.S., and the town bills sewer separately for some subdivisions based on that water use. Electric, gas and internet are separate accounts; our utilities guide lists them.

How to read your bill

A Spring Hill statement is a stack of flat monthly fees plus two charges that depend on how much water you use. Here is a recreated example, with every line explained. It is built from the city’s published rate schedule, not from anyone’s real bill.

The timing

Meters are read once a month, per city code, around mid-month. The service application says the 15th and the billing page says the 20th, so don’t hang anything on the exact day. Bills go out by the 1st and cover the previous month’s use, so what you pay in one month reflects water you used the month before. Usage is counted in 1,000-gallon increments. The bill is due by the 15th. If it isn’t paid, a 10% late fee is added and a final notice goes out soon after, and the account can be cut off after the 25th. Ahead of any shutoff, city code says you have the right to be heard by a city employee if you dispute the amount.

Why sewer is the bigger number

The city bills sewer on the water that goes through your meter, “at a higher rate than the water,” in its words. At the July 2026 rates a home using 5,000 gallons pays about $57 for water and about $73 for sewer. The sewer line follows your water use month by month. The city’s documents don’t describe any seasonal averaging, so a summer of watering the lawn raises both lines. The one exception is a separate irrigation meter, covered under high bills.

What a typical month costs

These are the water, sewer and stormwater charges at various usage levels, before the roughly $24.55 for trash, recycling and city services. Use the slider to try your own number.

These tables apply the city’s three water tiers to each additional 1,000 gallons, which is how we read the schedule. The schedule doesn’t spell out the method, so treat the totals as close estimates, not what your bill will say to the penny.

Rates and rate changes

The City of Spring Hill’s rates are set by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. In 2024 the board adopted Ordinance 24-07 for water, and a companion ordinance for sewer, which laid out three yearly increases on every July 1 starting in 2024. The July 2026 step is the last one in that schedule. The full set is on the city’s rate schedule, and the city posted the 2025-26 and 2026-27 numbers side by side on its rate-change announcement.

Sources: the city’s rate schedule for water and sewer, and its rate-change announcement for stormwater and sanitation. The 2024 stormwater and sanitation figures weren’t in what we reviewed. Sanitation is trash, recycling and city services combined.

The city described the July 2026 change as about 30%. Our arithmetic on the city’s own numbers agrees: every water and sewer base and usage charge rose about 30% in July 2025 and again in July 2026 (between 29.96% and 30.09%), so a 5,000-gallon water-and-sewer bill went from $77.27 in 2024 to $100.49 in 2025 to $130.66 in 2026. That’s about 69% in two years. We computed all of these from the published schedule.

Stormwater went up a quarter ($7.75 to $8.00) and the sanitation total rose 30 cents, the city said; our trash guide covers the sanitation side. The stormwater fee is set to climb $0.25 a year. From July 1, 2027, the rate schedule says water and sewer rise every year by 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater.

Where the money goes

Water and sewer bills fund the water and sewer system and nothing else; the city says those projects can’t be paid for from general tax revenue. Our budget explainer shows the system running on roughly $36 million a year from bills, in an account separate from police and parks. The 2024 increases were adopted on June 3, 2024, according to city code, more than a year before the state’s order against the sewage plant, so they weren’t a response to it. The bigger bills ahead are the plant and water-supply rebuild, a roughly $320 million program the city’s water staff described to aldermen, per our moratorium explainer. We haven’t found an adopted rate plan to pay for it beyond the annual 3%-or-inflation formula.

One more piece: fees from new construction help pay for sewer capacity. Under city code, the sewer system development charge for a standard home connection is $3,035 as of July 2026, and the money goes into an account reserved for expanding and repairing the system. With the moratorium, development fees have dropped sharply, which we cover in the budget piece.

If your bill is high

Before you call, do the check that settles most cases. Turn off every faucet and appliance that uses water, then look at your meter. If the dial or low-flow indicator keeps moving, water is leaking somewhere. The usual suspect is a toilet that keeps refilling. Under city code, the piping on your side of the meter is yours to maintain, and because sewer follows water, a leak inflates the sewer charge too.

The common causes

• Irrigation. Sprinklers on your house meter are charged for water and for sewer. At the July 2026 rates every thousand gallons past the first 10,000 costs $20.03 (water $10.47 plus sewer $9.56). The city sells a separate irrigation meter for $3,001.65, paid by check, cash or money order, and it charges only the water rate, not sewer. Do the math first: at today’s sewer rate you’d need to water roughly 314,000 gallons to earn that back, and the rate schedule says water base charges apply to irrigation meters too, so the new meter carries its own monthly base charge.
• Filling a pool. The city can give a one-time sewer credit, because that water never reaches the sewer. Submit the pool fill-up form with the meter readings, dates and gallons. You have to be on city sewer to qualify.
• A rate step. If the bill jumped in July or August without a change in your habits, that’s likely the rate increase above, not a meter problem.
• A misread or a failing meter. Meters are read monthly, and mistakes and failures happen.

What you can ask the city to do

• A leak adjustment. Fix the leak first, then send the leak adjustment form, which must reach the city within 30 days of the leak. Attach the repair receipt or plumber’s invoice. Drop it at City Hall or email [email protected]. City code lets the city recompute a bill when a break on the customer’s side of the meter caused extraordinary charges, using your average past use. It says the city “may” do this, so adjustments aren’t guaranteed. The form doesn’t say whether the adjustment covers water, sewer or both, so ask.
• A special reading or a meter test. City code lets you ask for a re-read, which carries a fee unless it turns up a city error, or a test of the meter if you think it’s inaccurate. There is no charge if the test finds the meter is running against you.
• A hearing before shutoff. If you’re disputing an amount, call before the 25th. The delinquency notice must tell you who to talk to.

The city also publishes its other utility forms in one place. For active leaks, sewer spills or a pressure problem, skip billing and use the repair line in the phone list.

Paying and managing service

Ways to pay

Per the city’s service application, you can pay in person at City Hall (there’s also a night drop box out front), by mail to a lockbox in Nashville, by phone with a card or the automated line, online, in the city’s mobile app, or by text. Cash, check, money order and automatic bank draft carry no fee, while card payments add a processing fee. If you pay through your bank’s bill-pay, the account number must be entered in the full 10-digit format with its dashes (00-000000-00), and the mailing address is P.O. Box 306542, Nashville, TN 37230-6542.

Autopay. The city’s no-fee option is an automatic draft (ACH) from a checking account, set up with the authorization form that comes with the application packet. Even on autopay, keep an eye on the amount: the draft pays whatever the bill says.

Starting service

New accounts need the residential application, plus a photo ID for everyone on the account, submitted at least 24 hours before move-in. There’s a $50 non-refundable connection fee for new customers, and it’s waived if you’re already a customer or were one before. Balances on an old account must be cleared first. Email [email protected] or drop it at City Hall.

Stopping service

When you move out, submit the disconnection form. The city warns that if you don’t, the account stays in your name even after new residents move in, and you stay responsible for the bill. The base charges also start the day a meter is installed whether or not anyone is using water, per city code, so ask the city if a home will sit empty for a while.

If a bill goes unpaid

Past the 25th, service can be shut off. The reconnection fee is $25, or $50 if service is restored after 4:30 p.m. or on a weekend, and every charge must be paid first.

The sewer limits, explained

Sewage from city sewer customers goes to the city’s wastewater plant on Mahlon Moore Road, which treats it and discharges it to the river. State permit limits cap what the plant can discharge. Between 2023 and 2025 the city reported 29 violations of those caps to the state. In response, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) issued a consent order that the city’s aldermen accepted on Aug. 5, 2025. That is a settlement-style order, with a $65,700 penalty, a required repair plan, and a ban on new sewer connections for projects without existing rights. The ban is the sewer moratorium. The order itself is public.

Where the limits stand

The city turned the order into local law with Ordinance 25-29, passed Jan. 5, 2026. The consent order bars new sewer connections for projects without vested rights, with exemptions for critical infrastructure. Per our explainer, the ordinance also lets an existing building change uses if it won’t produce more wastewater, and sets aside a 100,000-gallon-a-day discretionary reserve the board can hand out case by case. Only 960 gallons a day of that reserve had been used as of early November, according to the same piece. Existing promises are the larger story: a September 2025 city list of vested commitments adds up to roughly 9,100 more homes, 13.7 million square feet of non-residential space and 1,498 hotel rooms. Our explainer quotes city water staff saying the city has committed to more capacity than the first phase of its rebuild provides.

There is no end date. The city says the moratorium stays until the plant meets the order’s standards for 12 consecutive months. The order’s own wording ties it to 12 consecutive months without a reported bypass or a large sewer overflow (over 400 gallons), and says it lasts until TDEC rescinds or modifies it in writing. TDEC can also grant partial relief if the city reduces stormwater getting into its sewer pipes or adds treatment capacity. The plant has improved since the order: city staff told aldermen in August that nitrogen discharges had fallen sharply and there had been no bypass since early June, per our explainer. The city says that doesn’t shorten the timeline.

What it means for you

• If you already live here: your service isn’t affected. You can renovate, sell and buy a home as usual, per our explainer.
• Your bill: the moratorium doesn’t set your rate. The 30% steps were adopted in 2024, a year before the order. What could matter more is who pays for the fix. Growth fees that used to help are down, and the rebuild is large. We haven’t found an adopted plan for rates beyond 2027’s formula.
• If you’re buying new construction: a lot or a builder’s promise isn’t the same as sewer capacity. Projects with vested rights can still connect, others are waiting. At June Lake, for instance, one 75-lot section has sewer allocation for only 14 homes. Ask the builder in writing whether your lot is covered. The consent order exempts only projects that already hold vested sewer rights. Our June Lake report, tracker and development map show what has and hasn’t been committed.
• If you’re a business: new restaurants and expansions can’t just add capacity. Per our explainer, several have had to ask the board for a share of the reserve. Our Medacta report looks at one large employer’s sewer situation.

The Columbia pipeline

The nearest-term relief is the plan approved on Oct. 19: a 12-inch sewer main from the Mahlon Moore plant, along Mahlon Moore Road and then a TVA easement for several miles, to Columbia’s system on its north side. The city puts the cost around $12 million, $9 million for the pipeline and $3 million for upgrades to the Carter’s Creek Pike pump station, all paid by Spring Hill, plus a usage rate paid to Columbia. It would carry at least 500,000 gallons a day and as much as 1.5 million. Columbia’s council voted for it on Oct. 8. The announcement gives no construction dates. This went further than when we published our moratorium explainer, so check that piece for the latest on timing.

The long-term fix is bigger: a rebuilt plant, new reservoirs, and an advanced purification system that loops treated water back through the supply. The city’s water staff put the cost around $320 million, with a final commissioning target of 2030, per our explainer. The city also finished a 2-million-gallon water tank south of Stonegate in October.

The Riverkeeper lawsuit

Separately from the state’s order, Tennessee Riverkeeper, a river advocacy group, sued the city in federal court in Nashville in September 2025. Its suit says the plant violated the Clean Water Act from 2020 into early 2025. The city asked the court to throw the case out, arguing the state consent order already covered it. In its Sept. 4 ruling, the court said it couldn’t tell what the consent order covers and wouldn’t dismiss the case at this early stage. The court noted the state order itself leaves room for further penalties and corrective action. A ruling that a case can proceed is not a finding that anyone broke the law, and the city has not admitted to the allegations in the consent order. What a final outcome would cost the city is unknown.

Who to call

Utility Billing’s number differs across city pages. 931-486-2252 is on the city’s rate sheet and forms, the billing page lists 931-329-4840, and the Water page lists 931-451-0964. Repair and after-hours numbers are from the Water page, and the Waste Management number is from the billing page. H.B. & T.S.’s number is on its website, and Maury County Water System’s is on its site. For missed pickups see our trash guide.

What we’re watching

We’ll update this guide when the board votes on the Columbia pipeline details and its timeline, when the court rules on what comes next in the Riverkeeper case, and when the city announces rates for the year after July 2026. Aldermen could also vote soon on allowing builders to lay pipe at their own risk in a moratorium area. Our moratorium explainer tracks that one.