Water & sewer — City of Columbia
201 Second Street · 601.736.8201. Call for current payment options.
New here? Start on this page.
Four calls and you're moved in.
Water and garbage come from the city on one account; gas, lights and internet come from somebody else — and knowing which is which saves you an afternoon on hold.
The city provides two of these
Water and garbage are the city's. The rest aren't.
This is the single most common point of confusion for new residents, so plainly:
The City of Columbia provides your water and sewer. Start service, stop service, ask about a bill, or confirm current payment options at City Hall, 201 Second Street · 601.736.8201.
Your household garbage is the city's too, and it rides on the same account. One can per household, the deposit made at the Water Department, the charge billed with your water and sewer. So it is really one call, not two — the cans and the collection rules are here.
How much water the city can hold. Columbia has two tanks — one of 400,000 gallons and one of 500,000 gallons — 900,000 gallons of storage in all. (Source: the city's property insurance carrier report, supplied by the City Clerk's office, August 2026.)
Gas, electricity and internet are private companies. The city does not bill for them, cannot start them, and cannot fix an outage on them. Their numbers are below.
Who to call
Getting the lights and heat on.
Set these up before you move in where you can — some need a day or two.
Natural gas — Delta Utilities
Start service: 1-833-335-8299. GAS EMERGENCY or smell of gas: 1-888-876-5786.
Electricity — Mississippi Power
Start service: 1-800-532-1502. Report an outage: 1-800-487-3275, 24 hours.
Electricity — Pearl River Valley Electric Power Association
The electric co-op now serves some addresses inside the city limits because of annexation. Confirm the provider for your exact address before opening service.
Internet
Internet, provider by provider.
Fiber reaches roughly half of Columbia, and coverage is street-by-street rather than citywide — so check your actual address against each one before you commit.
- C Spire — fiber in parts of town.
- AT&T — fiber on some blocks, DSL on others.
- Swyft Fiber — fiber, expanding in the area. (Spelled with a Y — easy to mistype.)
- PearlComm Fiber — reaches a large share of the city; symmetrical speeds up to 1 Gbps.
- Conexon Connect — building fiber across Marion County through the electric cooperatives, which is how the rural addresses outside town are getting served.
Ask your future neighbors what they actually get. A coverage map and the real speed on your street are two different conversations, and a neighbor will settle it in ten seconds.
The city does not endorse, resell, or take a cut from any provider — this list exists so you know who to call.
County, not city
Property taxes and the county tax rolls.
Property tax is Marion County, not the City of Columbia. Two systems hold the records:
- Marion County tax rolls and appraisal records — run on Delta Computer Systems, the platform Mississippi counties use. Look up a parcel's appraisal and taxes of record.
- Marion County GIS — the county's parcel mapping: boundaries, ownership, acreage.
Real property taxes can be paid in installments, as long as the first payment is at least half of what's due and lands by February 1 after the tax year. The second and third payments carry 0.5% per month interest on the unpaid balance.
For an assessment question, an exemption, or a bill, contact Marion County Tax Assessor/Collector Stephanie Buhrer — not City Hall. Homestead exemption has a filing deadline, so ask early rather than in December.
The Board of Supervisors runs the county side — roads, bridges, drainage, and solid waste outside the city limits. All five, with phone numbers.
Also worth bookmarking
County services the city doesn't run.
- Info for New Residents — the county's own orientation page.
- Local Weather and River Levels — worth knowing in a town on the Pearl. Check it before heavy rain.
- Emergency Management — storm and flood preparedness for Marion County.
- Solid Waste Department — county garbage and disposal, for addresses outside the city limits. Inside the limits the city collects your garbage.
- Local Attractions — the county's list, alongside ours.
- Columbia–Marion County Airport.
Fire and police inside the city limits are the city's — 911 for emergencies, 601.736.8204 for the Columbia Police Department.
Moving in?
Not sure who handles what?
Call City Hall at 601.736.8201. If it isn't ours, we will tell you whose it is — that is a faster answer than working through four websites.