Impact Fee Map
Home / Fee types / Sewer tap
Depends on state and local authority

Sewer tap or connection fee

A one-time charge to connect to the sanitary sewer, again typically a tap component plus a capacity component.

Who charges it

The sewer utility or sanitation district

The trap

Sewer capacity charges commonly run higher than water. Where a separate district serves the parcel, the city permit desk may not even quote it to you.

Wastewater capacity charges commonly exceed water charges, because treatment plant capacity is the expensive part of the system.

Commercial and multifamily charges are frequently calculated by equivalent residential units or by projected loading rather than by meter size, which means a change of use in an existing building can trigger a charge with no construction at all.

North Carolina is the one state that imposed uniform statewide rules on these charges specifically: a documented analysis, a ten to twenty year horizon, a revenue credit unless a buy-in method is used, and updates at least every five years.

Where this is authorized

Among the states with a general enabling act, 24 list this facility type as eligible and 5 do not. States without an act are a local question entirely.

Listed as eligible

ArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIndianaMaineMontanaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoOklahomaOregonRhode IslandSouth CarolinaTexasUtahVermontWest VirginiaWisconsin

Not on the eligible list

DelawareIllinoisPennsylvaniaVirginiaWashington

Next

Get the actual numberSix steps from parcel record to a written estimate. Check your stateWhat is authorized where you are building. Credits and offsetsWhere this fee can legally come down.
Read this before you rely on anything here. Impact Fee Map describes who is legally allowed to charge new construction, for what, and what a fee payer's rights are under state law. It does not publish fee amounts for any city, county or district, and it never will, because no source keeps thirty-nine thousand local schedules current and a stale number is worse than none. This is not legal advice, not a fee quote and not a substitute for the adopted fee schedule of the bodies with jurisdiction over your parcel. Statutes change; verify against the current text and confirm every figure in writing with the agency that will bill you.