Utilities in Maricopa AZ: Every Provider and What Changes by Address

By James Sanson, REALTOR®, Real Broker. Licensed in Arizona since August 2002 and working the City of Maricopa market since 2004. See his background and transaction history. Updated October 2026.

Homes in the City of Maricopa get electricity from Electrical District No. 3, water and sewer from Global Water, natural gas from Southwest Gas where gas lines reach the address, and trash from either Waste Management or Waste Connections of Arizona depending on the community. Internet comes from Cox, CenturyLink, or Orbitel. There are four to six accounts to open, not one.

On this page

1. Electricity
2. Water and sewer
3. Natural gas
4. Trash and recycling
5. Internet, TV, and phone
6. What changes by subdivision
7. The order to call in

Maricopa is not served by a single municipal utility, as most Phoenix-area cities are. The city does not bill for water, power, or trash. Every account is with a separate company, and two of them differ depending on which subdivision the house sits in. That surprises almost every buyer moving down from the Phoenix metro, and it is the single most common set of questions asked in the last two weeks before closing. Below is the current provider list for 85138 and 85139, what each one needs from you, and the parts that change by address.

Electricity: Electrical District No. 3

ED3 is a political subdivision of the State of Arizona, formed in 1926 by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, not an investor-owned utility. It operates under Electric Service Guidelines adopted by an elected board pursuant to A.R.S. § 48-1747, which is why its rate structure and its Purchased Power Cost Adjustor look nothing like an APS bill.

ED3 became the sole electric provider within its service territory in 2010, when the Arizona Corporation Commission approved the transfer of roughly 3,800 metered connections that lay within the district boundary but were still being served by Arizona Public Service. The territory now covers more than 384 square miles and includes the City of Maricopa and the Town of Stanfield.

For practical purposes in 85138 and 85139: if the home sits in a platted subdivision, the power is ED3. Not sometimes, always. Where it can differ is in outlying acreage and horse property on the edges of town, because those parcels may fall outside the district boundary. If you are buying land or a horse property rather than a tract home, confirm the electric provider at the parcel before you assume anything. ED3 filings also name the Ak-Chin Indian Community as excluded from its service area.

Reach ED3 at (520) 424-9021. The city office is at 41664 W. Smith Enke Rd., Suite 100, and the district office is at 41630 W. Louis Johnson Drive, both in Maricopa 85138. New service starts through the Residential Connect form on ED3's SmartHub portal. What ED3 asks for at setup, and how to avoid its deposit, are covered under the order to call in, below.

Thinking about solar? ED3 is not APS or SRP

This is the most common solar mistake newcomers make. Because ED3 is a political subdivision run by its own elected board and is not regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission, the solar rules that apply to APS and SRP customers do not apply here. Most of the net metering and buyback information online describes those two utilities, not ED3.

ED3 runs its own program for customer-owned generation. Anyone adding solar completes an ED3 Application for Customer Owned Distributed Generation, and the credit for power sent back to the grid is set by ED3's own Solar Power Program Buyback Rider, on ED3's terms, not the statewide net metering people read about elsewhere. If you are weighing whether solar pencils out, get the current numbers from ED3 directly and run them with a tax or financial professional. We do not give that advice.

Where this touches the purchase itself: if a home you are considering already has panels, the first question is whether they are owned or on a lease or a power purchase agreement. Owned panels transfer with the house. Leased and PPA systems can require you to qualify to take over the agreement, which affects financing and timing, so it needs to surface during the inspection period, not at the closing table. A buyer's agent who works Maricopa can flag it early.

Water and sewer: Global Water

Global Water Resources handles water, wastewater, and recycled water in Maricopa. It operates locally through two separate regulated entities: Santa Cruz Water Company for drinking water and Palo Verde Utilities Company for wastewater. Both are Global Water subsidiaries and are currently under rate review before the Arizona Corporation Commission, which is why no rate figures appear on this page.

The piece that confuses new owners: Maricopa has a second, separate pipe system carrying recycled water for outdoor use. Treated and purified wastewater is redistributed for irrigation and common-area landscaping rather than discharged. If you see purple fittings on a shared landscape line, that is what they are, and they are not potable.

Billing and emergencies both run through (866) 940-1102. A new service is opened via an online start service form, and existing customers use the WaterSmart portal, where usage can be tracked by the hour and by the day. That hourly detail is the fastest way to confirm or rule out a leak before you pay someone to look for one.

Natural gas: Southwest Gas, where it reaches

Southwest Gas is the natural gas provider for Maricopa, reachable at 877-860-6020, with a regional office in Casa Grande. The important qualifier is that gas does not reach every address in the city. A number of Maricopa subdivisions were built all-electric with no gas stub at the house, Palo Brea among them, so there is no gas account to open at all, and the range, water heater, and dryer are electric by design.

Do not assume based on the neighbor across the street. Check availability at the specific address with Southwest Gas before you plan on a gas appliance. On the safety side: if you smell gas, Southwest Gas instructs you to call 911 and then 877-860-6020, whether or not you are a customer.

Trash and recycling: two haulers, assigned by community

The City of Maricopa lists two residential haulers: Waste Management at (602) 268-2222 and Waste Connections of Arizona at (480) 983-9101. Waste Connections of Arizona is the company many residents still call RAD, from Right Away Disposal, its former local name.

You do not choose between them. Under Maricopa City Code 8.05.020, every occupied residential property inside city limits must have refuse service through a contracted waste collection permittee, and residents whose HOA holds a private hauling contract are required to move to the city-approved collection company when that contract terminates. So the hauler follows the community, not the homeowner. Ask the seller or the HOA which one serves the address, and get the pickup day in writing before move-in.

One thing almost nobody tells a seller preparing for a listing: the City of Maricopa Waste and Recycling Center closed on August 12, 2023. For a garage cleanout or a pre-listing purge, the city now points residents to Recycle Today Maricopa at 45030 W Edwards Cir in 85139, the WM Butterfield Station Landfill at 40404 99th Ave in 85139, and Weinberger's Rainbow Valley Landfill at 39500 99th Ave in Mobile 85139.

Internet, TV, and phone: three providers

The city lists three: Cox Communications at (888) 988-0167, CenturyLink at (866) 642-0444 for new orders and (877) 348-9007 for technical support, and Orbitel Communications at (520) 568-8890. Orbitel is the one most relocating buyers have never heard of, and the one that matters most in several older HOA communities, where it has been the incumbent for years.

Availability and the technology behind it vary block by block in Maricopa because build-out happened subdivision by subdivision over two decades. Verify at the address rather than at the city level, and if working from home depends on a specific upload speed, verify it before the inspection period ends, not after.

One clarification the provider list hides: CenturyLink's fiber product is branded Quantum Fiber, and fiber, not the old DSL, is what most people now mean when they ask about CenturyLink here. Quantum Fiber reaches a large share of the city and runs symmetrical speeds, meaning upload as fast as download, which is the part that matters for working from home and video calls. Cox has been layering fiber onto its older cable footprint, and Orbitel runs cable with gigabit tiers in the communities where it is the incumbent. DSL still exists but is legacy and being phased out. None of it is universal. Build-out happened subdivision by subdivision, so the answer that counts is the one you get by checking your exact address with each provider.

What changes by subdivision and what does not

Constant across 85138 and 85139: electricity is ED3, water and sewer are Global Water. Those two do not vary.

Variable by address: the trash hauler, whether natural gas reaches the house, and which internet providers actually serve the block. Those three are the questions worth asking during the inspection period, because two of them affect which appliances work and one of them affects a monthly bill you cannot shop around for.

Also worth separating out: HOA assessments are not a utility. They are billed by the community association or its management company on the association's own cycle, and they are a separate obligation from every account on this page.

The order to call in

Sequence matters more than most buyers expect because ED3 requires advance notice and will not connect on weekends. Start the transfers about two weeks before closing and open accounts in this order:

1. Confirm the exact subdivision and address. In a platted subdivision the core providers are ED3, Global Water, and Southwest Gas where gas reaches; outside the subdivisions, on acreage and non-subdivision parcels, providers can differ, so confirm each utility for the specific parcel.
2. Open electricity with ED3.
3. Open water and sewer with Global Water.
4. Check whether the home has natural gas. If it does, open service with Southwest Gas.
5. Arrange trash with the hauler assigned to the community.
6. Book internet, which is the one with a real appointment queue.

The two-week timeline

Roughly two weeks out, confirm three unknowns with the seller or the HOA: which trash hauler serves the address, whether the house has natural gas service, and which internet providers reach the block. Those answers determine how many accounts you are actually opening.

About one week out, open the ED3 and Global Water accounts with a start date set to the day of recording. Both allow a future start date, so there is no reason to wait.

Two to three business days out, schedule the internet installation. This is the one with a real appointment queue, and it is the one people put off.

The day before recording, confirm the ED3 connection is on the schedule. ED3 requires at least 24 hours' notice to connect and completes requests Monday through Friday. Same-day connection is available for an additional charge, but same-day disconnection is not offered. A Friday closing with a weekend move needs the electric request in by Thursday at the latest.

Opening the ED3 account

ED3 runs a soft credit check to verify identity and set deposit requirements, so it asks for a Social Security number, date of birth, and driver's license number at setup. ED3 states the check does not affect your credit score and does not appear on your credit report.

ED3 publishes a service establishment charge on every residential account, and all establishment charges must be paid before service is connected. Fees are set by board action and change without notice, so confirm the current amount with ED3 at (520) 424-9021 before you set up service.

If ED3 asks for a deposit

Depending on the soft credit check result, ED3 may assess a security deposit. The amount is published on the ED3 site and ED3 can change it. A deposit held on the account is refundable after 24 months of good payment history.

There is an alternative worth knowing about. ED3 offers a prepaid metering program, a self-managed account with no deposit and no late fees, in which electricity is paid for before it is used. For a buyer who is cash-tight at closing after the down payment and closing costs, that is the difference between money tied up at move-in and none. Ask ED3 about prepaid metering when you open the account, not after the deposit is assessed.

Opening the Global Water account

Global Water starts new service through an online start service form. Existing customers manage the account through the WaterSmart portal, and billing questions and emergencies both go to (866) 940-1102.

Set up online account access on day one rather than waiting until a problem arises. The portal shows usage by hour and day, which makes it the cheapest leak detection available to a new owner in a desert climate. If the first bill looks wrong, hourly data either finds the overnight draw or clears the house.

What every provider asks for

Have these ready and each call goes quickly:

1. Your name and contact information
2. The service address in Maricopa
3. Your mailing address, if it differs from the service address
4. Landlord information, if you are renting rather than buying
5. Your requested start date, which for a buyer is the day of recording

If you are the one leaving

Do not disconnect anything before recording. Power and water need to stay on during the final walkthrough so the buyer can test the HVAC, run the taps, and check the water heater. In a Maricopa summer, a house with the power cut two days early is a house with a failed walkthrough and a delayed close.

Schedule the stop date for the day after recording, and remember that ED3 does not do same-day disconnections, so build in the notice period. A local listing agent who manages the closing calendar handles this alongside everything else on the schedule.

If you are still deciding on the move itself, the broader picture of what living here actually involves covers the rest.

Provider names, phone numbers, fees, and procedures on this page were verified in August 2026 against each provider and the City of Maricopa. Utility companies change fees and procedures without notice. Confirm current amounts and requirements directly with the provider before you rely on them. This page is general information about service providers, not legal, tax, or financial advice.

Buying or selling in 85138 and 85139 means dealing with every one of these accounts on a deadline. If you want the utility handoff handled alongside the rest of the transaction, reach the team that has worked this market since 2004 at 520-838-8037. The line takes calls, not texts.

James Sanson | Real Broker | Licensed in Arizona