Type your address to find which of Bakersfield's seven water systems supplies it — with that supplier's phone number, billing and outage links, and its own watering rules, which are not the same from one supplier to the next.
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Bakersfield is not on one water system. At least seven supply the city and the streets around it, and the line between them does not follow the city limit, the school district or anything else you can see. Which one you are on decides who bills you, who you ring at 11pm when the water stops, and — the part people get wrong — which days you are allowed to water.
Type your address below and this page asks the state's official drinking-water map which system covers that point. Every system is also listed in full further down, so the page works whether or not the state's map answers.
Type a street address and we’ll ask the state’s official drinking-water map which system supplies that point. Service areas don’t follow city limits or street names — two houses on the same road can be on different suppliers, with different watering days.
Central Oildale — around Galaxy Avenue, North High and the top end of North Chester
Largest first. Each one sets its own watering rules, sends its own bill and has its own number to ring when the water stops.
A private company — its rates are set by the state regulator, not by a local board. Called “CWS - BAKERSFIELD” on the state’s map. Serves roughly 268,000 people.
The largest system in town: most of central, east and southeast Bakersfield, and pockets well beyond. Everyone calls it Cal Water.
No assigned watering days. You can water any day of the week — but never between 8am and 6pm.
Read from Cal Water — "When can I water outdoors?" on 2026-08-06. Rules change with the drought — check the page before you reprogram a timer.
Your bill is the final word. This page reads the state’s official map of who is licensed to supply which patch of ground. That is not the same thing as your account. If the two disagree, your bill is right.
About half of California’s service-area boundaries have never been verified. Where a utility sent the state a proper map file, the state marks it verified. Where nobody did, the boundary was drawn in a community mapping tool and left as it was. Here, that means Oildale Mutual Water Company, Vaughn Water Company, East Niles Community Services District — the lines around them are a community estimate, not the utility’s own record.
No answer doesn’t mean no water. Away from the built-up streets you may be on a private well, or on one of the several dozen small mutual water companies and homeowner associations that the state has never mapped at all. The tool will say it doesn’t know rather than pick something plausible.
Addresses are found by street number. The federal address finder this uses places a house by interpolating along its street’s number range, not by its roof. Near a service-area line that can put you on the wrong side, and in a recently built subdivision it may not find the address at all.
The City of Bakersfield's watering-day schedule is the single most-asked-about rule in town, and we could not confirm it from the City. Its water pages load their content in a way we cannot read, and the schedule is not in the municipal code — the code section on outside irrigation bans watering that runs off onto pavement and says watering is advised after 6pm and before 9am, but sets no days. The days come from the Water Board's shortage-stage declaration, which the City does not publish anywhere we could reach. Local reporting has described odd-numbered addresses on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and even-numbered on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, with none on Monday; we have also seen a two-day version described. Two versions is one too many to print. Ring (661) 326-3715 or email water@bakersfieldcity.us and ask.
Cal Water's own Bakersfield page says it serves "Bakersfield, City of Bakersfield, Olcese, and North Garden", and that it operates the City of Bakersfield water system through an operations-and-maintenance contract. So a City customer pays the City and gets Cal Water crews. That does not make the City's rules Cal Water's rules, or the other way around: the two systems set watering days separately, and this is exactly where people go wrong.
Around the edges of the city sit dozens of small mutual water companies, homeowner associations and single-subdivision systems, most with between a dozen and three hundred connections. Some are on the state's map, some are not, and this page does not carry contact details for any of them. If the lookup names a system you have never heard of, that is probably one of them, and your bill will have its phone number.
The same map this page reads, to look at directly. Zoom to your street and click the shape you land in.
The state's own database of water systems. Search a system by name to see its test results, violations and the details it filed with the state.
Cal Water runs its own systems and the City's, so if nobody knows who supplies an address, its office is a reasonable first call.
Service-area boundaries: Division of Drinking Water, California Water Resources Control Board, Tracking California, Public Health Institute Water Boundary Tool. The state says service areas may change without notice, as the data set is dynamic and updated on an on-going basis. Addresses are located by the US Census Bureau’s public geocoder. The address you type is sent to those two services to answer your question and is not stored, logged or recorded anywhere by this site. Phone numbers, links and watering rules on this page were checked against each supplier’s own site on the dates shown.
Town Tools builds free, public tools for Bakersfield and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.
A public body — its board meets in public and you can vote in it or turn up. Called “BAKERSFIELD, CITY OF” on the state’s map. Serves roughly 160,000 people.
The northwest and southwest — much of Rosedale, Seven Oaks, the Buena Vista and Panama corridors, and the newer subdivisions out that way.
The City's rules are stricter than Cal Water's next door — but we have not been able to confirm the current schedule, and two different versions are in circulation.
We haven’t been able to confirm this system’s current watering rules from the supplier itself, so we’re not printing any. Ask them — City of Bakersfield — Drought — rather than going by what a neighbour on a different system does.
A private company — its rates are set by the state regulator, not by a local board. Called “OILDALE MWC” on the state’s map. Serves roughly 45,000 people.
Oildale, north of the Kern River — roughly from the river up past North High.
Odd-numbered houses Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; even-numbered houses Wednesday, Friday and Sunday; nobody on Monday.
Published by Oildale Mutual Water Company as “Recommended Water Days”.
Oildale heads the day list "Recommended Water Days" and lists the rest under actions that are prohibited — so read the days as advice and the rest as rules. Read from Oildale Mutual — Water Conservation on 2026-08-06. Rules change with the drought — check the page before you reprogram a timer.
A private company — its rates are set by the state regulator, not by a local board. Called “VAUGHN WC INC” on the state’s map. Serves roughly 37,000 people.
The Rosedale area northwest of town, since 1928. Its patch is threaded through the City's, so Rosedale addresses can go either way.
Odd-numbered addresses Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; even-numbered addresses Wednesday, Friday and Sunday; avoid Monday.
Vaughn's conservation notice is dated March 2022 and is the most recent one it publishes. It is worded as a request rather than a penalty. Read from Vaughn Water Company — Water Conservation on 2026-08-06. Rules change with the drought — check the page before you reprogram a timer.
A public body — its board meets in public and you can vote in it or turn up. Called “EAST NILES CSD” on the state’s map. Serves roughly 33,000 people.
East Bakersfield out along Niles Street and Mount Vernon — its own district with its own elected board.
East Niles publishes general water-saving advice, but no watering-day schedule that we could find on its own site.
We haven’t been able to confirm this system’s current watering rules from the supplier itself, so we’re not printing any. Ask them — East Niles CSD — Conservation — rather than going by what a neighbour on a different system does.
The state’s map of this system’s service area was drawn in a community mapping tool and the utility has never confirmed it.
A private company — its rates are set by the state regulator, not by a local board. Called “CWS - NORTH GARDEN” on the state’s map. Serves roughly 23,000 people.
A separate Cal Water system covering the North Garden area northwest of the river. Cal Water runs it out of its Bakersfield district office — same phone, same rules.
Same as the Bakersfield district: no assigned watering days, and no watering between 8am and 6pm.
Read from Cal Water — "When can I water outdoors?" on 2026-08-06. Rules change with the drought — check the page before you reprogram a timer.
A public body — its board meets in public and you can vote in it or turn up. Called “GREENFIELD COUNTY WD” on the state’s map. Serves roughly 12,000 people.
Greenfield, in south Bakersfield around Taft Highway.
Greenfield's conservation page carries general advice, but no watering-day schedule that we could find on its own site.
We haven’t been able to confirm this system’s current watering rules from the supplier itself, so we’re not printing any. Ask them — Greenfield County Water District — Water Conservation — rather than going by what a neighbour on a different system does.
The state’s map of this system’s service area was drawn in a community mapping tool and the utility has never confirmed it. It also has five holes punched through the middle of it, which is why parts of Oildale come back as "no system here".
The state’s map of this system’s service area was drawn in a community mapping tool and the utility has never confirmed it.