What does the water company charge you for?

[blueman]

You are lucky -- are Taxachusetts charge is $4.19/hcf for water and $6.38/hcf for sewer (total of $10.57/hcf) if you use more than 20 hfc/quarter. And if you use more than 70 hcf/quarter you pay $5.03 for water and $7.66 for sewer (total of $12.69/hcf).

You see here in the land of Kennedy and Kerry, even water is "taxed" progressively.

In our town, you pay the sewer even when watering lawns. So, in the summer when we exceed 70 hcf/quarter, we are paying 1.7 cents per gallon.

In fact, I am seriously considering putting in a well (at least for non-drinking consumption) even though we live in a near-city suburb since I figure the payback will be less than 5 years.

[blueman]

Luckily our otherwise overly regulated and bureaucratic town allows wells for irrigation as long as you satisfy some minimal setback requirements.

You are not supposed to use the water for anything but irrigation, but...

[Doug Miller]

In many communities, the municipality owns the water utility, and thus the water *is* provided by the government, and the city *does* get the money.

[gfretwell]

It was always "thousands of gallons" in the DC area, dating back as far as I can remember (long before computers). I suspect they went to Cu/Ft "units" as a way to trick people who were used to 1000 gallons as the billing unit. This allowed them to make you think you were still getting 1000 gallons for "x" dollars but it is only 748

[mm]

OK. I've never gotten a water bill from the water company. It seems we would have to pay someone to read each house's meter, so we just let them read the main meter and divide by 109, the number of houses.

So I get a bill from the HOA management company, with no details at all, just a dollar amount.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

And 109 people are OK with that? Only way I'd accept that policy is if I was one of the user abusers and let the other homeowners subsidize me. Get a copy of the real bill, read your own meter and see if you are getting screwed.

[Michael B]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

My billing is quarterly.

Three months was 16,000 gallons The meter reading is thousands of gallons.894 to 910. $72.50 for the water $39.45 for sewer There is a minimum billing bit I'm not sure what that is.

[Rick Blaine]

In many communities in the US, the water department is a city or (less often) a county department. Any revenue generated by this department goes into the city coffers, just like local taxes and police ticket revenue.

[mm]

Most people are like sheep. And it's more than 109, because people sell and new people buy, and I've only heard one person ask and no one complain. These were starter homes for the first set of buyers, and I'm told Americans on average move every 5 years, so in 27 years it must be close to 400**

**I lowered this because I think they only get every five years by counting college and grad students and the low-ranks of the army who might move every year.

It requires a 5-sided socket to open the box for my meter. Although maybe vice grips would do it. The bill is low anyhow. I'll have to look for a new bill but I vaguely remember years ago it was 20 dollars every three months.

[Everett M. Greene]

And the Colorado River and the Central California Project and...

More than one.

Not believed to be true.

"to" Lake Mead? Las Vegas is substantially higher than Lake Mead.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If that is the case, no reason to complain or check anything. Just pay and smile. My bill for three months runs about $110.

[Marilyn & Bob]

Not necessarily true. It many places like, for instance, NYC the funds are segregated into different accounts, although the "creative" types in governemnt keep on coming up with new ways that they can bill the Water Board accounts for services provided by the City.

[Rudy]

And in CUBIC METERS

[gfretwell]

But that is 1000 liters, or 1000 kilograms funny how that metric system simplifies things huh?

Nah we like gallons, yards and pounds.

[George]

Water is usually measured by volume such as cubic feet, cubic meters, gallons, liters etc. "units" are just an invention of suppliers. This reminds me of that sleezy life insurance company that is always advertising "you can get coverage for only $10/unit"

[George]

I don't think it would be the nerd who is responsible. Decisions like that are often made by the creative ambiguity manager of the marketing department. And it even extends to stuff like life insurance. You may have heard that sleezy TV commercial "you can buy life insurance for only $10/unit".

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Dilbert's boss is running the world. Seriously. Or, Dogbert.

[George]

Not for me. I know how much a gallon is and I can relate to using any quantity. Using x units of water makes no intuitive sense to me.

A "ton" has a uniform definition.

In order for it to make sense to me I would have to determine what the "unit" might mean.

Would you buy a car if it was advertised to get "50 miles per unit"?

[Rudy]

Ok, take 6 gallons of Pepsi, add 3 yards of Bacardi and drop in 2 pounds of limes

and you get the worlds biggest Cuba Libre