Drinking Water Operating Permit Fees

In 2025, the Washington State Legislature approved a bill to raise the operating permit fee for public water systems. We have adopted rule changes to carry out this legislative requirement.

The fee increase allows us to continue helping water systems meet their responsibilities to provide safe and reliable drinking water, now and into the future.

How Operating Fees are Calculated

In 2026, the fee structure includes a $110 base fee for all systems and per-connection fees based on the size of the system.

In 2027, the fee structure includes a $200 base fee and $1.50 per connection fee for all systems, regardless of size.

Classification 2026 2027
Base fee for all water systems $110 $200
Per-connection fee  
14 or fewer services $1.43 $1.50
15 - 99 services $1.38 $1.50
100 - 499 services $1.32 $1.50
500 - 999 services $1.27 $1.50
1,000 - 9,999 services $1.21 $1.50
10,000 - 95,000 services $1.16 $1.50
95,001 or more services $110,000 per year $1.50
SMA Use the per connection fee amount above to calculate the fee based on total number of all service connection owned plus a $110 base fee. Use the per connection fee amount above to calculate the fee based on total number of all service connection owned plus a $200 base fee.
Late Fee (we charge a late fee 70 days after we mail the renewal application). Add 10% to applicable fee or $27.50, whichever is greater. Add 10% to applicable fee or $50, whichever is greater.

Pay Your Operating Permit Fees Online

Click the link below and follow the instructions to register your account through Secure Access Washington (SAW).

Online Annual Invoice Permit Renewal Guide 331-688 (PDF)

Once you register your account, you will need your Owner Number to access your invoice. You will find it at the top right of your Annual Fee Statement. If you can't find your Owner Number or need help registering your account, contact OpPermit@doh.wa.gov, 360-236-3042.

Operating Permits Go Electronic

Effective immediately, we no longer mail your water system Operating Permit to you. Instead, you may download it through Sentry Internet.

We will continue to mail your Annual Fee Statement to renew the operating permit every year.

Please note:

  • Electronic payments are processed immediately and your OP will be available 24 hours later in Sentry.
  • Mail-in payments are processed by hand and the OP will be available 30 days later in Sentry.

How do I view or download a copy of my operating permit?

We put together easy-to-follow tutorials to help you learn how to view and download a copy of your operating permit.

To download a copy of your Operating Permit:

  1. Click this link Operating Permit from Sentry.
  2. Accept the terms and conditions.
  3. Enter your Water System ID number.
  4. Click Submit.
  5. Save or print a copy of your permit.

If you have questions or need help, contact OpPermit@doh.wa.gov, 360-236-3042.

Satellite Management Agencies

The fee structure provides a break to satellite management agencies (SMAs) for the systems they own. An SMA would only be charged a single $110 base fee to cover all the systems it owns, plus a per-connection fee based on the total number of connections for all systems. 

Systems managed but not owned by an SMA will pay the same fees as individual systems.

Reducing the Fee Increase Impact

We know this is a bad economic time to raise fees. To help ease the impact, fees will increase by just 10 percent in 2026 to the full fee in 2027 to allow water systems time to budget for this increase.

All Group A Systems Will Pay a Fee

Under the old fee structure, almost two-thirds of Group A water systems (about 2,700 systems) paid nothing or just $25 per year for their operating permit. These are the smallest Group A water systems, which often have the most challenges and create much of the demand on the state's time and resources. A recent report to the Legislature (PDF) showed that many small systems are not meeting basic water quality requirements, jeopardizing the public's health.

All Group A water systems will now pay a $100 base fee regardless of size. The additional revenue allows us to put more emphasis on technical assistance and compliance for small Group A water systems. This will help systems better assess and improve their capacity to deliver safe and reliable drinking water.

Improving the Billing Statement

We heard from water systems that the annual billing statement has not been clear enough. We made improvements so that your billing statement will be easier to understand.

Counting Service Connections

Water systems must report their service connections and population on the Water Facilities Inventory (WFI). We use this information to calculate operating permit fees and set monitoring and other regulatory requirements.

Community Water Systems

During the 2012 legislative session, we heard two major concerns from community water systems about our past method for counting service connections.

  1. "Not all systems report residential service connections the same way." We are working with systems to improve service connection reporting. Some water systems told us it is difficult for them to accurately count the number of dwelling units in multifamily housing and apartment buildings. Counting multifamily dwelling units describes methods some systems use to accurately report that information on their WFI.
  2. "Basing the fee on both residential connections and nonresidential populations leads to inequities." Under the old fee structure, people may have been counted twice: once as non-residential consumers and once as residents in their homes, leading to higher fees for water systems. Or, residential customers of water systems could have borne the costs of serving large numbers of consumers who don't live on the system (such as shoppers or employees).

To correct this problem, we changed the way we calculate the operating permit fee for community water systems by counting only the residential and commercial/business, institutional, and industrial connections reported on the WFI. In doing so, each dwelling unit counts as one residential service connection, even if that dwelling unit doesn't have its own separate service meter (for example, each mobile home in a mobile home park, and each apartment in an apartment building, counts as a residential service connection).

The fields on the WFI used in determining the total number of connections include:

  • 25A – full time single family residences (this total should include mobile homes occupied full time).
  • 25B – part time single family residences (this total should include mobile homes occupied part time).
  • 26B – full time residential units in an apartment building, condo, duplex, and so forth.
  • 26C – part time residential units in an apartment building, condo, duplex, and so forth.
  • 27B – institutional, commercial/business, school, day care, industrial, and so forth.

The total population served isn't used to calculate an operating permit fee for a community water system. However, it remains very important to accurately estimate the total residential and non-residential population served, and to report these totals on the WFI, to assure the appropriate population-based standards are applied (such as water quality monitoring and operator certification).

Non-Community Water Systems

The operating permit fee is based on the populations reported on the WFI. The population is converted to equivalent service connections and then the fee is calculated. The fee calculation no longer includes any physical service connections reported on the WFI.

The fields on the WFI used in determining the population served include:

  • 29A – full-time residential population.
  • 30A and 30B – part-time residential population.
  • 31A and 31B – temporary and transient users (non-residents with access to the water system less than 180 days per year).
  • 32A and 32B – regular non-residential users (non-residents with access to the water system 180 or more days per year).

Please contact your regional WFI administrator if you have questions. You may also go to our Contacts and Office Location page where you'll find program email addresses, and an interactive map with county assignments. Our Staff Directory page lists staff by program. 

Pi Kosaret, 564-669-3862, wfi.swro@doh.wa.gov

Mary Rucksdashel, 253-395-6756, wfi.nwro@doh.wa.gov

Kelsey Russell, 360-742-1456, wfi.ero@doh.wa.gov

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