The Colony, Denton County, Texas
What a Plumber The Colony TX Residents Hire Needs to Know About the 2024 Code
Two facts about this city point in opposite directions, and holding both of them at once is the fastest way to understand how plumbing work gets done here. The first is that the rulebook is brand new. Effective 1 September 2025 The Colony adopted the 2024 International Plumbing Code along with the rest of the 2024 series, which makes it the most current plumbing code of any city covered on this site.
The second is that the plant is close to full. The Stewart Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is rated to treat 4.5 million gallons a day as of 2020, and the city states its average daily flow is 3.75 million gallons a day. Setting those two figures against each other is our arithmetic rather than the city, and it works out at roughly 83 per cent of capacity as an average rather than a peak.
Between those two facts sits everything a homeowner or a contractor actually has to deal with: a registration requirement that catches people out, a homestead test on doing your own work, and a set of scheduling rules with money attached. This page works through all of it.
The Newest Book on This Site
The 2024 Code Set, and Why the Edition Matters to a Quote
The city publishes its adopted codes as a dated list, and the date is the important part. Effective 1 September 2025 The Colony adopted the 2024 International Plumbing Code and amendments, the 2024 International Residential Code, the 2024 International Building Code, the 2024 International Existing Building Code, the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code, the 2024 International Fuel Gas Code, the 2024 International Mechanical Code, the 2024 International Property Maintenance Code and the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, together with the 2023 National Electrical Code and ICC A117.1-2017.
Every one of those is adopted with amendments, so the unamended national book is never the operative document. That is the single most useful thing to know before accepting a quote: ask which edition and which amendments the pricing assumes, because a contractor who mostly works in a neighbouring city on the 2018 or 2021 series may be quoting from a different book entirely.
The contrast with cities we have already covered is stark. Schertz sits on the 2018 series adopted in April 2021. Broken Arrow sits on the 2018 series and does not adopt an energy conservation code at all. The Colony is six years ahead of both, and it separately names a swimming pool and spa code, which very few cities on this site list as its own document.
Where the edition bites for ordinary residential work is in fixture and appliance requirements, venting details and the energy code interaction with hot water distribution. If you are re-running supply pipework, our general treatment sits on the repiping page, but the specification you build to here is set by the 2024 books.
Registration Before Anything Else
Everyone Working Here Must Be Registered, Homeowners Included
The Colony operates a registration requirement that sits on top of state licensing, and it applies to everybody. The city states that all contractors working in the City of The Colony must be registered, that registration is done by submitting the Contractor Registration Form with copies of the driving licence and the master licence where applicable, and that the registration is valid for a period of one year beginning on the date paid.
That is worth asking about explicitly, because a Texas master plumber licence and a City of The Colony registration are two different things and only one of them is checked at the permit counter. A contractor whose registration lapsed in the middle of your job creates a problem that has nothing to do with the quality of the work.
Homeowners get their own route, and the terms are unusually specific. A homeowner working as their own general contractor must register using the Homeowner Registration Form, and there is no fee to register. But the city adds a condition: verification with the county must reflect homestead status if the homeowner will be handling any electrical, mechanical or plumbing work on the property.
Read that carefully, because it is a genuine gate rather than a formality. Homestead status is a county tax designation attached to a principal residence. A rental you own, a property held in an entity or a second home will not satisfy it, and in those cases the plumbing work goes to a registered contractor whether you are capable of doing it or not.
Have These Ready
What You Need Before Anyone Touches Pipe in The Colony
This is a checklist for paperwork rather than for pipework, which is unusual for this site and appropriate for this city. Nothing below is difficult, and all of it is faster to gather before the job than during it.
- Confirm the contractor is registered with the City of The Colony, not merely licensed by the state. Registration runs one year from the date paid.
- If you are doing the work yourself, complete the Homeowner Registration Form. There is no fee for it.
- If you are doing electrical, mechanical or plumbing work yourself, check that the county record shows homestead status on that property before you start.
- Establish which code edition and which local amendments the work is being priced against. Since 1 September 2025 that is the 2024 series.
- Note the Building Inspections office hours, which are Monday to Thursday 7:30am to 5:30pm and Friday only 7:30am to 11:30am.
- Note the inspection window, which is Monday to Friday 7am to 4pm, and book into it rather than assuming a full working day.
The Friday half day appears twice, in different departments, and it is the detail most likely to cost you a day. Building Inspections closes at 11:30am on Friday and utility service start dates on Friday run only from 8am to 11am. A job that finishes late on a Thursday and needs both an inspection and a water turn-on is realistically a Monday job.
The city also publishes a Well Drilling Application through Engineering, which is a reminder that private wells exist here and are permitted rather than assumed. If a property has one, its relationship to the public supply is a question to settle before any cross connection work.
One Plant, One City
Stewart Creek, and What Happens to What Leaves Your House
The Colony is unusual among the cities on this site in that a single plant, owned and operated by the city itself, serves the entire municipality. There is no regional authority in the middle and no neighbouring city treating the flow. That makes the plant capacity a genuinely local question rather than somebody else problem.
The history is one of continuous catching up. The plant was built in the late 1980s with an original capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day. Through the years, with city growth, it has expanded multiple times to accommodate the population, and as of 2020 it has a capacity of treating 4.5 million gallons per day. Several lift stations around the city help the wastewater reach it, and it runs continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The city publishes its average daily flow as 3.75 million gallons per day. We set that against the 4.5 million gallon capacity and make it about 83 per cent, and we label that arithmetic as ours because the city states the two figures on the same page and draws no conclusion from them. What it does mean in practical terms is that the margin for large inflow events is not enormous, which is exactly why what you put down the drain matters here.
What comes out is described plainly. Biological treatment converts the incoming wastewater into biosolids, averaging 950 dry metric tonnes per year, which are transported to area landfills. The effluent is filtered and disinfected before discharging into Lewisville Lake, and treated effluent is also reused at the Stonebriar Golf Course over in Frisco.
Regulated, and Reported Monthly
Who Watches the Plant, and What That Means for You
The Stewart Creek plant operates under a permit issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Specifically it holds a Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which the city explains contains effluent limits intended to ensure a healthy quality of water, and which brings with it monthly reporting to the TCEQ along with record keeping, monitoring and testing.
That regulatory structure is the reason a city with one plant takes grease and wipes seriously rather than treating them as an inconvenience. An inflow that pushes the plant outside its permit limits is not merely an operational problem, it is a reportable one. The same logic applies to what reaches the sanitary sewer from a swimming pool, which is why the city publishes separate guidance on safely draining a pool or spa.
The city also offers plant tours through the year and gives a City Hall number of 972-625-1756 to arrange one, which is a more useful thing than it sounds if you are trying to understand why a particular blockage keeps recurring on your street. The wastewater department number is 972-624-2253.
On the water side, Water Distribution and Water Production between them provide the potable supply, maintain water and wastewater lines, read meters, monitor water quality, operate the water pump stations, and maintain and operate well sites. Their published numbers are 972-625-4471 for the department, 972-625-2741 for water and sewer emergencies during business hours, and 972-624-4433 after hours.
Scheduling Costs Money Here
The Utility Appointment Rules, and the $20 That Catches People
Setting up or moving water service in The Colony is an appointment-based process with published charges attached, and coordinating it badly against a plumbing job is a straightforward way to waste money. These are the figures the city publishes on its residential utility administration page, and they were read directly rather than inferred.
| Item | What the city publishes |
|---|---|
| Application fee | $20 |
| Deposit, buying | $75, with past history possibly requiring a larger deposit |
| Deposit, renting | $150, with past history possibly requiring a larger deposit |
| Deposit, temporary | $75, with past history possibly requiring a larger deposit |
| Transfer within the city | $25 |
| Same day service | An additional $20, depending on availability |
| Missed appointment | An additional $20 |
The requirements list is equally specific: a completed online or printed request, a colour copy of the driving licence, lease or proof of ownership documents, the deposit, the application fee and an appointment time. If buying, a copy of the title papers. If renting, a copy of the signed lease. All adults on the lease or title papers must be listed on the service application.
Timing is the part to plan around. Service start dates are available Monday through Thursday from 8am to 4pm and on Friday only from 8am to 11am, and 24 hours advance notice is required to start or stop service. If a re-pipe or a heater swap needs the water off and then back on, book the turn-on before the trades rather than after.
Three Departments, Three Numbers
Who to Ring, Depending on What Has Failed
Water and sewer emergencies
972-625-2741 during business hours and 972-624-4433 after hours. This is the route for anything in the public system, including a suspected main problem.
Building Inspections
972-624-3100, at 6800 Main Street. Permits, contractor and homeowner registration, adopted codes and inspections. Office hours end at 11:30am on Friday.
Engineering
972-624-3195. Right of way permits, grading and storm water control permits, floodplain development permits and the Well Drilling Application all sit here.
A registered plumber
Everything on the private side of the meter, and the permit application itself. Neighbouring Plano runs its own separate registration and code position.
The Colony sits against Frisco, Plano, Lewisville, Carrollton and Little Elm, and a contractor working across that patch is dealing with several different registration regimes and code editions in the same week. That is not a criticism of anyone, it is a reason to confirm rather than assume. Where a line needs clearing rather than permitting, our drain cleaning page covers the method and hydro jetting the aggressive end of it.
Why the City Charges Separately for Rain
The Storm Water Utility, and the Reason It Exists
Most cities that run a storm water utility explain it in terms of federal mandates and stop there. The Colony gives the reasoning, and it is unusually candid about why the old arrangement was abandoned.
Historically, the city says, it paid the operating and maintenance costs of all storm drainage systems within the city through property taxes or other city funds. It describes that as an easy system to administer, and then states the flaw plainly: there was no direct relationship between property value and storm water demand. Rather than increase property taxes or other utility charges, the city adopted a Storm Water Utility which allows those costs to be spread among users in a more equitable manner.
The legal instruments are named. The City Council passed Municipal Utility Drainage System Ordinances 04-1571 and 05-1616, sitting at Chapter 12, Article VI, Section 12-108 of the code. If you are contesting a storm water charge or working out which parcel it attaches to, those are the references to start from.
The city also flags the practical cause it is worried about, and it is a construction one. Development and associated construction activities disturb soils and remove natural vegetation, and without preventative measures those soils wash into storm drainage systems and into nearby lakes and streams during rainfall, causing blockage and pollution and eroding stream channels. That is why a grading and storm water control permit is a separate thing from a building permit here.
Neighbourhoods and Corridors
Where This Applies Across The Colony
The registration requirement, the 2024 code set and the single plant apply across the whole city. What varies is age of stock and proximity to the lake. The older core near Main Street and the original subdivisions carries the oldest service lines, while the newer development to the north and west went in under later codes and generally later materials.
One geographic note worth carrying. The Colony has a long shoreline on Lewisville Lake, and the same lake receives the treated effluent from the Stewart Creek plant. Properties near the water are not on a different system, but the lake is both a recreational asset and a discharge point, which is part of why the city is as specific as it is about pool draining and about construction site runoff.
A second note on boundaries. The Colony is surrounded closely by other municipalities, and a postal address is not a reliable guide to which city actually provides your utilities or issues your permit. Confirm which city bills you for water before assuming the registration and code position on this page applies to your property.
The Colony Plumbing Questions, Answered Straight
A 2024 code set adopted in September 2025, a registration requirement that reaches homeowners, a homestead test on doing it yourself, and a plant running at about five sixths of capacity.
The 2024 International Plumbing Code with amendments, adopted effective 1 September 2025 alongside the rest of the 2024 series: the 2024 IRC, IBC, IEBC, IECC, IFGC, IMC, IPMC and ISPSC, plus the 2023 National Electrical Code and ICC A117.1-2017. Every one of those is adopted with local amendments, so ask any contractor which edition and which amendments their price assumes. This is the most current code set of any city we have covered.
Yes, and it is separate from a state licence. The city states that all contractors working in The Colony must be registered, that registration requires the Contractor Registration Form with copies of the driving licence and the master licence where applicable, and that a registration is valid for one year beginning on the date paid. Ask when the registration was last renewed, not merely whether one exists.
Only if the county record backs you up. A homeowner acting as their own general contractor must register using the Homeowner Registration Form, and there is no fee to register. But the city states that verification with the county must reflect homestead status if the homeowner will be handling any electrical, mechanical or plumbing work on the property. A rental you own or a second home will not meet that test.
The city does, at one plant. The Stewart Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is owned and operated by the City of The Colony and serves the entire city. It was built in the late 1980s at 1.5 million gallons per day, has expanded multiple times, and as of 2020 has a capacity of 4.5 million gallons per day. It runs continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and several lift stations feed it.
The city publishes an average daily flow of 3.75 million gallons per day against a stated capacity of 4.5 million gallons per day. Comparing those two figures is our arithmetic rather than the city, and it comes out at roughly 83 per cent as an average rather than a peak. We are not drawing any further conclusion from it, because the city publishes both numbers side by side and does not.
Into Lewisville Lake, after filtering and disinfection, and onto a golf course. The city states that biological treatment converts incoming wastewater into biosolids, averaging 950 dry metric tonnes per year, which go to area landfills, and that the effluent is filtered and disinfected before discharge into Lewisville Lake. It also reuses treated effluent at the Stonebriar Golf Course.
We are not stating a figure, and the reason is specific. The city publishes a 2025 Water Quality Report, and we retrieved it in full. Its readable content is limited to form annotations and metadata, because the report tables themselves are raster images rather than text. A second city handout, the Do I Need a Permit document, has the same problem at 345,356 characters of unreadable glyph data. Ask Water Production directly on 972-625-4471, or test at your own tap.
The city publishes an application fee of $20 and deposits of $75 when buying, $150 when renting, $75 for temporary service and $25 to transfer within the city, noting that past history may require a larger deposit. Same day service is an additional $20 subject to availability, and a missed appointment adds a further $20. We are not quoting water or sewer rates, because the rate document was not opened.
Monday through Thursday from 8am to 4pm, and Friday only from 8am to 11am, with 24 hours advance notice required to start or stop service. Building Inspections also closes at 11:30am on Friday, while inspections themselves run Monday to Friday 7am to 4pm. If a job needs both a final inspection and a turn-on, a Thursday finish is comfortable and a Friday finish usually is not.
The city publishes a Well Drilling Application through its Engineering Department, and its Water Production function includes maintaining and operating well sites, so groundwater is part of the picture on both the public and private side. If a property has a well, the relationship between it and the public supply is a cross connection question to settle before any work, not after.
Check the Edition and the Registration
Plumber The Colony TX Work That Starts With Two Questions
Both of the things that go wrong here are administrative rather than technical. Ask which code edition and which local amendments a quote is built on, because since 1 September 2025 this city has been on the 2024 series and several of its neighbours are not. Then confirm that whoever is doing the work is registered with the City of The Colony, or, if that is you, that the county record shows homestead status on the property. Neither question takes five minutes, and both of them stop a job at the counter if they are left until the end.
Related work on this site: sewer line repair covers the replacement decision, leak detection covers finding a loss before it becomes a bill, and emergency plumbing covers the out of hours case. The state picture sits on our Texas plumbing page, and the neighbouring city that receives the reused effluent is covered on our Frisco page.
Sources for the Stewart Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant being built in the late 1980s, the original 1.5 million gallon per day capacity, the multiple expansions, the 4.5 million gallon per day capacity as of 2020, the statement that it serves the entire city and is owned and operated by the City of The Colony, and the biological treatment producing biosolids for area landfills: the City of The Colony Wastewater Treatment page.
That same Wastewater Treatment page is the source for the filtering and disinfection before discharge into Lewisville Lake, for the TCEQ permit and the Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System effluent limits with their monthly reporting, record keeping, monitoring and testing, for the lift stations, for the continuous 24 hours a day 365 days a year operation, for the 3.75 million gallon per day average daily flow, for the 950 dry metric tonnes per year of biosolids, and for the reuse of treated effluent at the Stonebriar Golf Course.
Sources for the adopted code list and its 1 September 2025 effective date, covering the 2024 IPC, IRC, IBC, IEBC, IECC, IFGC, IMC, IPMC and ISPSC, the 2023 NEC and ICC A117.1-2017, all with amendments, and for the Building Inspections office and inspection hours: the City of The Colony Adopted Codes and Ordinances page.
The contractor registration requirement, the registration form and licence copy requirements, the one year validity from the date paid, the homeowner registration route with no fee, and the requirement that verification with the county reflect homestead status where the homeowner will handle electrical, mechanical or plumbing work all come from the City of The Colony Contractor Registration page.
The application fee, deposits, transfer charge, same day charge, missed appointment charge, document requirements, service start windows and 24 hour notice requirement come from the City of The Colony Utility Administration Residential page. The storm water utility reasoning, the statement that there was no direct relationship between property value and storm water demand, and Ordinances 04-1571 and 05-1616 at Chapter 12 Article VI Section 12-108 come from the Storm Water Utility page.
The Well Drilling Application, the grading and storm water control permit and the floodplain development permit come from the Engineering Permits, Fees, Forms and Master Plans page. The water and wastewater responsibilities, the pump stations and well sites and the departmental telephone numbers come from the Water Distribution and Water Production page. The pool and spa draining guidance is published alongside the Wastewater Treatment page.
No water hardness figure is stated on this page. The 2025 Water Quality Report was retrieved and its readable content is limited to form annotations and metadata because the report tables are raster images; the Do I Need a Permit handout inflates to 345,356 characters of unreadable glyph data. No water rate, sewer rate or permit fee is quoted, because neither the 2025-2026 rate document nor the FY 2026 Master Fee Schedule was opened. No contractor registration fee is stated, because the page does not give one. No count of wells, lift stations, mains mileage or connections is stated, and no wholesale water supplier is named, because no page read states one.
Where this page divides the average daily flow by the plant capacity, the arithmetic is identified as ours in the text. No response time, crew count, office or address of ours is stated for The Colony, and no coverage claim is made beyond what our Texas page already sets out. Codes, fees, hours and registration rules change, so confirm current requirements with the City of The Colony Building Inspections and Public Works departments before relying on anything above.