I was stewing over how unfair my water bill was. I owned a small duplex occupied by usually 4 people with a modest lawn and paid two flat rates = $166 every month! I knew Mormon households with 8 members plus nice large lawns and medium sized businesses who paid half! my! rate! I mean I could have understood the same rate, but half!!!! So I was righteously pissed off.
After five years I finally went to City Hall to complain. After I got my righteous words out I learned that city code was city code and I could complain at a higher level if I wanted to and thought it might do me any good. But then I learned that if I paid to have a water meter I would have a flat rate of $25 per month plus $1 (!) per 1,000 gallons. The water meter cost $430 and there was a grant program to pay for its installation if I didn't dillydally.
Estimating my typical water use at an average of 7,000 gallons per month despite not knowing within of 10,000, I thought "would I pay $430 now to save $134 every month forever?" That was a short debate.
Anyhow I just got my first bill in the mail and it was for $27! Now granted that was for 24 winter days but I will take it and no questions asked.
If you have a flat rate water bill, it might be worth at least feeling out the opportunities for switching to a metered connection. As an additional benefit, I will no longer feel like I need to burn a few KGal each month to justify the absurd bill. Just kidding, I moved and it is an investment property now. But that extra 3% return on investment each year feels sweeeeet and also long overdue. If I had done that when I moved in I would have an extra $10k by now.