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From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/fort-smith-arkansas-us/water-sewer-bill
hundred cubic feet (CCF)
≈ 3,740 gallons
Fort Smith measures water in CCF — hundred cubic feet. Your usage for the month is printed on your utility statement. A typical household uses about 3–5 CCF a month.
Fort Smith bills sewer on your winter-average water use — your November–March average — not your summer use. So watering the lawn in July isn't charged as sewage. In the winter months it's just your actual use.
1 CCF = 748 gallons. These are the rates for a standard 5/8" or 3/4" residential meter.
Your estimated monthly bill
At 2026 rates
$91.73
a month
Water
$24.22
Sewer
$50.07
Sanitation (trash & recycling)
$17.44
Total
$91.73
Water includes the monthly base charge, your metered usage, any per-meter fees and sales tax.
Sewer is billed on your winter-average use, so summer watering is not charged as sewage. Sewer is not sales-taxed.
Fort Smith's water and sewer bills keep climbing — and it isn't a mistake on your statement. The city is under a 2015 federal court order to rebuild a sewer system that spilled into the Arkansas River, and sewer rates rise 3.5% every year through 2030 to pay for it. Enter roughly how much water you use in a month and this tool estimates your bill at today's rates, then shows how the same bill grows as the sewer rates go up. It's an estimate to help you plan, not your actual statement.
As the sewer rates rise
The sewer rates go up every year under the consent decree. Holding your usage the same, this is roughly what the same bill becomes:
Year
Estimated bill
2026 (now)
$91.73
2027
$93.48
2028
$95.29
2029
$97.17
2030
$99.11
Sewer rates rise 3.5% every January through 2030 under the city's federal consent decree — about $3 more a month each year for a typical household. The current-year figures use the rates in force today. Later years apply the scheduled annual increase to the sewer portion only — they are projections, not quoted rates.
An estimate, not your bill
This is a guide, not your actual bill. Real bills depend on your meter size, your exact metered use, and any adjustments or programs you qualify for. Check your bill or the city for the exact figures.
Why the bills keep rising
The short version
Fort Smith is under a 2015 consent decree with the U.S. EPA, the Justice Department and the State of Arkansas. For decades the sewer system overflowed and spilled raw sewage into the Arkansas River during heavy rain — which the Clean Water Act forbids — so the city agreed to rebuild it. Paying for that court-ordered work is what drives the sewer increases.
In February 2025 the city set sewer rates to rise 3.5% every year — first in June 2025, then each January through 2030 — to fund the work. On 3 March 2026 the Board of Directors approved a modification to the decree, and in July 2026 the U.S. District Court entered it, extending the deadline to finish the work from 1 January 2027 to 30 June 2038. The city now estimates the total cost could approach $800 million. The modification confirmed the 3.5% annual sewer increases through 2030, so the schedule in this estimator is unchanged.
Water rates went up on 1 August 2024 — the first water increase since 2011 — and are not on the same yearly schedule as sewer. A second water increase was proposed for 2025 and the Board held off on it; as of mid-2026 none has been adopted, so the water rates below are still the 2024 ones. This estimator holds the water and sanitation parts steady and only grows the sewer part in the future years.
Worth knowing
Inside the city, standard meter
These are inside-city residential rates for a standard meter. Direct customers outside the city limits pay 1.5× the water usage rates. Households in the city's Project Concern program pay half the water base and usage rates. Worth knowing if you go looking: the PDF behind the utility site's "rate sheet" link is the 2018 schedule, so the sewer figures on it are several increases out of date — the city's own sewer-rate-increase page carries the current ones.