The Wastewater
Treatment Bill

There are two different formulas used to calculate your wastewater treatment bill. Which one is used depends on whether you get your metered water from a public or private water system, or from a well.

All MCSE customers pay a fixed monthly rate as part of their bill. This fixed rate - which is designed to fund capital improvements and other needed expenditures for the MCSE system - is the same regardless of the amount of water used or the size of your household.

MCSE customers on public or private water systems pay a user charge, which is based on the amount of water you use at your home or business in a billing period. Each year, MCSE's rate structure sets a rate per 1,000 gallons of water used.

If your home is served by well water, your bill is derived from a formula that considers the number of persons in your household multiplied by the average number of gallons of water a person uses in a day. This figure is then multiplied by the current user charge.

The number of persons living in your household is indicated on your quarterly wastewater bill. If that figure has changed recently or is not accurate, please contact the Mahoning County Sanitary Engineering Department.

Both the user charge and the fixed monthly rate may change from year to year. For information on current rates or questions about your bill, call the MCSE office at 330-793-5514, ext.8205 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

You can pay your MCSE bill by mail, at many financial institutions, or in person at our offices located at 761 Industrial Road in Youngstown.

Helpful Tip:

If you frequently water your lawn or garden, wash your car, or often use water outside the home for other purposes, you may want to consider buying a second water meter. A second meter allows you to meter water you use outside of your home separately. In this way, your sewer bill will be based solely on the water that actually enters the wastewater treatment system. Contact our office for more details.

Your Wastewater Dollar at Work

Customers of the Mahoning County Sanitary Engineering Department receive wastewater treatment services. For these services, a charge is determined based on several items to include utilities, equipment, parts and labor. There are two parts; the user charge based on water consumption and a fixed monthly rate providing a constant revenue source for debt service payments during seasonal adjustments in consumption.

53¢

 Wastewater Treatment.
The actual cost of treating wastewater at the plant and returning it to nature in pure form. Included are the cost of utilities to operate the plant, chemicals and other materials used in the processing, maintenance on the equipment, and salaries for plant personnel. Costs also includes laboratory testing

18¢

 Debt service.
The continuing cost of principal and interest payments we must make to permit construction of new facilities and capital improvement to existing ones.

14¢

 Operations and Maintenance.
The cost of maintaining, repairing and replacing the over 760 miles of sewer lines and accompanying pump stations that make up your Mahoning County wastewater treatment system, including materials and labor costs.

6¢

 Administration.
The cost of Federal and State regulatory compliance and personnel costs.

5¢

 Contractual Billing Services
The cost of meter reading, processing, billing and mailing for the district's 40,000+ MCSE customers.

3¢

 Engineering
The cost of preparing, reviewing, inspecting the construction of sanitary sewer, by the private sector and publicly funded projects.

1¢

 System Replacement Capital.
Costs associated with keeping facilities and sewers operating as designed.


Wastewater Treatment $10,998,508
Debt Service $3,691,616
Operations and Maintenance $2,913,701
Administration $1,331,878
Engineering $745,812
Contractual Billing Services $1,081,013
System Replacement Capital $100,000
2006 Total $20,862,528


In 2007, the MCSE user charge is $6.10 per 1000 gallons of water consumption with a fixed monthly rate of $5.30 per customer.

Copyright © 2007 Mahoning County Sanitary Engineering Department