Is this water bill NUTS??

[MidwestnRich]

This water bill seems crazy high to me. Yes, there's water, sewer, garbage, and recycling, but still, feels like I'm being gouged.

Mid-sized midwestern town (population ~133k)

Water Daily 60 days * $.4523/day = $27.14
Water 12CCF * $2.3477 = $28.17
Tax $3.32

Sewer Daily 60 days * $.5659/day = $33.95
Sewer 8 CCF at $2.2913 = $18.33

Stormwater 60 days * $.2272/day = $13.63

Garbage 60 days * $.5756/day = $34.54

Recycling 60 days * $0.165/day = $9.90

Total $168.98 for two months. Or $84.49/mo.

Is this insane?? I come from a smaller town (still had trash and recycling pickup) and our bill was like $55/mo.

And I don't see this as anything I can change (besides moving) since 72% of our bill is fixed cost.

[bacchi]

Seems reasonable to me as it does include garbage and recycling as well as water/wastewater.

If you want to reduce it, reduce your water usage. You're using ~9000 gallons/month, which is a LOT even if you have a family of 6.

[OtherJen]

This water bill seems crazy high to me. Yes, there's water, sewer, garbage, and recycling, but still, feels like I'm being gouged.

Mid-sized midwestern town (population ~133k)

Water Daily 60 days * $.4523/day = $27.14
Water 12CCF * $2.3477 = $28.17
Tax $3.32

Sewer Daily 60 days * $.5659/day = $33.95
Sewer 8 CCF at $2.2913 = $18.33

Stormwater 60 days * $.2272/day = $13.63

Garbage 60 days * $.5756/day = $34.54

Recycling 60 days * $0.165/day = $9.90

Total $168.98 for two months. Or $84.49/mo.

Is this insane?? I come from a smaller town (still had trash and recycling pickup) and our bill was like $55/mo.

And I don't see this as anything I can change (besides moving) since 72% of our bill is fixed cost.

SE Michigan? I don't have my recent bill in front of me, but our last 2-month bill was similar.

[ReadySetMillionaire]

Seems very reasonable to me.

Keep in mind that if you are in a rust belt type of town, a lot of municipalities have just a tiny bit of surcharge on water, which is then used for infrastructure projects that tangentially relate to water. So think of it is a workaround infrastructure tax (I know a lot of municipalities in Ohio do this).

[sailinlight]

We pay $240 fixed cost before any usage every two months for water/sewage and $75 for garbage in Northern California

[MidwestnRich]

Seems reasonable to me as it does include garbage and recycling as well as water/wastewater.

If you want to reduce it, reduce your water usage. You're using ~9000 gallons/month, which is a LOT even if you have a family of 6.

Well, this is every two months, so 4488 gallons/month. Two adults, two children, lots of soiled kids clothes to do laundry, we enjoy our showers/baths, and we filled a kiddy pool a couple times this summer, and we may have had a medium leak out of the outside faucet? Not sure how quickly that would add up. It's fixed now.

[frugalnacho]

Seems reasonable.

One weird thing I found recently when looking for my water bill on my city's website is that apparently water bills and tax bills are public record.  Every address is listed, it displays the owers and previous owners, and shows every bill and its payment status going back years and years.  Same for the taxes.  Kind of weird being able to see exactly how much water every one of my neighbors has used for the last 10 years.  And also whether they paid their bill and when. 

[MidwestnRich]

We pay $240 fixed cost before any usage every two months for water/sewage and $75 for garbage in Northern California

I must be a naïve country kid. This is blowing my mind.

[Laserjet3051]

My summer water bill (includes landscape irrigation) was almost DOUBLE your bill and mine doesnt include garbage service. I wish my water bill was as low as yours. My fall through spring water bills should plummet due to shutting off outdoor irrigation. We are a family of 4 in a SFH in SW MI.

[HPstache]

$120/mo for Water & Sewer in NW Washington.  Garbage and Recycling is another $50/mo.

[LifeHappens]

Total $168.98 for two months. Or $84.49/mo.

Mine is about the same for a 2 person household in suburban Tampa.

[YttriumNitrate]

Seems reasonable to me. My old midwestern town was upgrading their combined sewer system, so in addition to 60-80/month for water/sewer there was another $20/mo charge for rainwater.

[Catbert]

These kind of rates are very variable around the country.  They only thing you can really do is determine which of these charges you can control and which are fixed. 

For example, the base water is probably a fixed fee for the privilege of being hooked up.  You can moan but there isn't anything to be done.  The number of CCfs reflects how much water you use and you can impact that.  Same with sewer.  In my city sewer amount isn't measured directly, but is based on water usage during the winter when presumably there is no landscaping irrigation.  Garbage and recycling may be a flat fee or could be based on the number of receptacles you have.

[Cranky]

Looks like a darned good deal to me.

[GoCubsGo]

Dirt cheap compared to what mine is

[WSUCoug1994]

We pay $240 fixed cost before any usage every two months for water/sewage and $75 for garbage in Northern California

I must be a naïve country kid. This is blowing my mind.

This is similar but cheaper for what we pay here my part of Northern California.  We then made the decision to move to a house with a well and septic - thinking all of these expenses would decrease.  Not true.  Although the water is free - the cost to maintain the equipment (6 pumps, ultraviolet lights, filters, reverse osmosis), to power the equipment, to clean the equipment, the lack of water services when the power is out is not worth it.  If I could get back to paying what we used to pay I would be way ahead of the game.  What is funny is I now have water anxiety - every time I turn the water on I am expecting it not to work.  To be fair we bought this house at 10 years old when most of this stuff starts to go bad but man - I have come to really appreciate a water utility.  I will tell you that our water tastes AMAZING and everyone comments on it but that doesn't make me any money lol.

Although we are not a zero waste home that is our goal.  The biggest way to decrease your garbage is to have a smaller can.  Ours is the smallest they offer and it made a pretty significant reduction in our garbage costs.  It also made us think more about how we bought certain items (packaging waste) as well as really upped our recycling and compositing game.  For example all of our neighbors use the 64 or 94 gallon can's - ours is 20 and costs 1/3 of the 64 gallon.

[bigblock440]

We pay $240 fixed cost before any usage every two months for water/sewage and $75 for garbage in Northern California

I must be a naïve country kid. This is blowing my mind.

This is similar but cheaper for what we pay here my part of Northern California.  We then made the decision to move to a house with a well and septic - thinking all of these expenses would decrease.  Not true.  Although the water is free - the cost to maintain the equipment (6 pumps, ultraviolet lights, filters, reverse osmosis), to power the equipment, to clean the equipment, the lack of water services when the power is out is not worth it.  If I could get back to paying what we used to pay I would be way ahead of the game.  What is funny is I now have water anxiety - every time I turn the water on I am expecting it not to work.  To be fair we bought this house at 10 years old when most of this stuff starts to go bad but man - I have come to really appreciate a water utility.  I will tell you that our water tastes AMAZING and everyone comments on it but that doesn't make me any money lol.

Although we are not a zero waste home that is our goal.  The biggest way to decrease your garbage is to have a smaller can.  Ours is the smallest they offer and it made a pretty significant reduction in our garbage costs.  It also made us think more about how we bought certain items (packaging waste) as well as really upped our recycling and compositing game.  For example all of our neighbors use the 64 or 94 gallon can's - ours is 20 and costs 1/3 of the 64 gallon.

6 pumps?  Holy hell, what are they for?

[WSUCoug1994]

Well Pump (Sits Inside the Well)
Pump from the well to the water holding tank (300' away)
Pump from water holding tank to house
Pump from water holding tank to fire suppression system
Septic Pump (sits inside the septic tank)
Septic Pump II - to pump it to the leach fields (which is very far away)

[marty998]

Well Pump (Sits Inside the Well)
Pump from the well to the water holding tank (300' away)
Pump from water holding tank to house
Pump from water holding tank to fire suppression system
Septic Pump (sits inside the septic tank)
Septic Pump II - to pump it to the leach fields (which is very far away)

I think they call this “pushing shit uphill” analogous to Sisyphus.

[bigblock440]

Wow, every house I've lived in had 1, the well pump, and everything else ran on gravity and water pressure.  Sounds like you're not in a standard residential house with an external holding tank.

[wenchsenior]

This water bill seems crazy high to me. Yes, there's water, sewer, garbage, and recycling, but still, feels like I'm being gouged.

Mid-sized midwestern town (population ~133k)

Water Daily 60 days * $.4523/day = $27.14
Water 12CCF * $2.3477 = $28.17
Tax $3.32

Sewer Daily 60 days * $.5659/day = $33.95
Sewer 8 CCF at $2.2913 = $18.33

Stormwater 60 days * $.2272/day = $13.63

Garbage 60 days * $.5756/day = $34.54

Recycling 60 days * $0.165/day = $9.90

Total $168.98 for two months. Or $84.49/mo.

Is this insane?? I come from a smaller town (still had trash and recycling pickup) and our bill was like $55/mo.

And I don't see this as anything I can change (besides moving) since 72% of our bill is fixed cost.

Seems totally reasonable to me.  Ours is typically 90$ to 130$ per month for two people (depending on need for watering garden in a Texas summer).  Edit: Does NOT include recycling, b/c they don't believe in that in my town.

[deborah]

This thread reminds me of an extortionate electricity bill I once had - three times the most it had ever been before. I complained about it, and the cashier was very sympathetic until I showed her the actual bill, when she laughed because it was evidently rather small.

At work the next day at lunch, I told them my woes. Fortunately for me, someone broke in before I actually told them the amount, and said their bill was twenty times what I was charged. Everyone else had similar stories. I was astounded! No one ended up asking what my bill was.

[American GenX]

I was going to say $85 per month for all that sounds high because mine is $50 - also midwestern smaller city.

But my $50 is for one person!  So, for a household of 4, $85 doesn't sound bad.

[nessness]

Ours is about $250 every two months, so no, that sounds reasonable to me. And they just announced a 40% rate increase for trash, which I think is like $90 of the $250, so a $36 increase.

[Tigerpine]

Our water bill last month (for water and sewer) was $16.41. 

We don't get a separate bill for trash.  This is in MA.

[Fishindude]

This water bill seems crazy high to me. Yes, there's water, sewer, garbage, and recycling, but still, feels like I'm being gouged.

$84.49/mo.

Is this insane??

Priced out the cost of a septic system and well lately?   You are getting a bargain.
We're on well & septic, but our trash bill alone is about half of that per month.

[BuildingFrugalHabits]

I'll trade you.  In the summer when we are watering the yard my water/sewer bill is $220 every two months.  Trash+Recycling is separate and around $25 per month.  Stormwater is $8 per month. 

So $110+$25+$8 = $143 per month. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Dirt cheap compared to what mine is

This

[Spiffy]

Yep, cheaper than mine. We are a five person household in Texas. I water my small garden, but not the grass. My bill includes the same things as yours (water, sewer, garbage/recycling pickup) and I pay $95-$98 each month.

[Fomerly known as something]

It’s about what I pay a month if you back out the trash/recycle.  My water is +/- $60-65 a month mostly in fees.

[Sibley]

Lower than mine, and I only have 1 person. Is this a recent increase? If so, could you have a leak?

[Buffaloski Boris]

That's a steal.  I'm paying a little less that you do for two months every single month.  By the time all the various fees are tacked on, it's very pricey to use not a lot of water.  And we don't irrigate. 

[Buffaloski Boris]

We pay $240 fixed cost before any usage every two months for water/sewage and $75 for garbage in Northern California

I must be a naïve country kid. This is blowing my mind.

This is similar but cheaper for what we pay here my part of Northern California.  We then made the decision to move to a house with a well and septic - thinking all of these expenses would decrease.  Not true.  Although the water is free - the cost to maintain the equipment (6 pumps, ultraviolet lights, filters, reverse osmosis), to power the equipment, to clean the equipment, the lack of water services when the power is out is not worth it.  If I could get back to paying what we used to pay I would be way ahead of the game.  What is funny is I now have water anxiety - every time I turn the water on I am expecting it not to work.  To be fair we bought this house at 10 years old when most of this stuff starts to go bad but man - I have come to really appreciate a water utility.  I will tell you that our water tastes AMAZING and everyone comments on it but that doesn't make me any money lol.

Although we are not a zero waste home that is our goal.  The biggest way to decrease your garbage is to have a smaller can.  Ours is the smallest they offer and it made a pretty significant reduction in our garbage costs.  It also made us think more about how we bought certain items (packaging waste) as well as really upped our recycling and compositing game.  For example all of our neighbors use the 64 or 94 gallon can's - ours is 20 and costs 1/3 of the 64 gallon.

Depends on where you're at.  We used to be on a well and septic.  Excellent water quality right out of the pump.  So long as the well keeps plugging away, the cost was electricity.  And for septic, the cost is to put a filter on your washing machine drain ($200) and having the tank pumped every couple of years. And being frugal with your water use so the septic system isn't overtaxed. 

To me the risk of a well is losing power.  Which happens every now and then.  So stock up on some bottled water and have a rain barrels and buckets so you can flush the toilets.

[clarkfan1979]

My water bill is $75/month in the winter and $100/month in the summer with minor watering of the lawn. I know that Denver is about 50% more expensive for water. My father-in-law's neighbor got a $435 water bill for one month because they were wasteful when watering the lawn. The more water you use, the higher the rate.

[SimpleCycle]

The fixed costs are high, but don't throw up your hands and say "nothing can be done" because in my opinion, you are using a crazy amount of water.  We are a family of four and use 2k gallons a month.  We don't make big efforts to conserve, but we take short showers and don't pre-rinse the dishes before going into the dishwasher, and this seems to result in low water usage.

We had a leaking toilet once, and it doubled our water bill, so it can have a big impact.

[bmjohnson35]

We live in Central FL and our bill is around $63 monthly.  Our previous residence around 30 miles away was around $40 monthly 3 yrs ago.

BJ

[researcher1]

This water bill seems crazy high to me.
Total $168.98 for two months. Or $84.49/mo.

Is this insane?? I come from a smaller town and our bill was like $55/mo.

According to your numbers...
- your WATER BILL is only $29.32/month.
- your SANITATION BILL is only $32.96/month.

Even if you combine the water/sewer, your total "water bill" is only $62.27/month.
This is only $7.27 more than what you paid at your previous residence.

[Just Joe]

Our water bill is ~$50 a month and no sanitation bill b/c there is no service here. We have to take our garbage to the local transfer station in our utility trailer when we feel like it. That's free too. We go maybe monthly. They offer recycling bins there. Aggressively sorting our trash means there is very little garbage. Some plastics and cardboard.

[WSUCoug1994]

Well Pump (Sits Inside the Well)
Pump from the well to the water holding tank (300' away)
Pump from water holding tank to house
Pump from water holding tank to fire suppression system
Septic Pump (sits inside the septic tank)
Septic Pump II - to pump it to the leach fields (which is very far away)

I think they call this “pushing shit uphill” analogous to Sisyphus.

Hahahaha - so true

[WSUCoug1994]

Wow, every house I've lived in had 1, the well pump, and everything else ran on gravity and water pressure.  Sounds like you're not in a standard residential house with an external holding tank.

Its a standard residential house with a 5000 gallon holding tank.  The well is at the bottom of the driveway (not a great design) - well pumps are not designed to cycle to create pressure in the lines.  We need more than gravity feed - gravity feed wouldn't even give us 5lbs of pressure in the lines - we know this when the power goes out.  The tank is higher than the house from a gravity feed perspective but you need 40-60lbs of pressure to have a normal water experience in your house - plus we have some pretty intense filters on the line due to the condition of the water. 

[bigblock440]

Wow, every house I've lived in had 1, the well pump, and everything else ran on gravity and water pressure.  Sounds like you're not in a standard residential house with an external holding tank.

Its a standard residential house with a 5000 gallon holding tank.  The well is at the bottom of the driveway (not a great design) - well pumps are not designed to cycle to create pressure in the lines.  We need more than gravity feed - gravity feed wouldn't even give us 5lbs of pressure in the lines - we know this when the power goes out.  The tank is higher than the house from a gravity feed perspective but you need 40-60lbs of pressure to have a normal water experience in your house - plus we have some pretty intense filters on the line due to the condition of the water.

I have a 500 foot well with a 20 gallon pressure tank in the basement.  It turns on when the pressure drops below 30, off when it gets above 50.  I don't know how deep the well was at my old house, but it was a jet pump in the basement with another 20 gallon expansion tank. That setup is common here, only ever had a sediment and UV filter. To generate that pressure with just gravity, you'd need a 100' tower, so I assumed it was a pump, just weird to me that it has a 5000 gallon holding tank for a residential house.  That's enough water for the average 5 person family to last for 2 weeks. Sewers/septic have always been gravity fed in my prior houses. Interesting the different ways people use to bring water into the house.

[WSUCoug1994]

Wow, every house I've lived in had 1, the well pump, and everything else ran on gravity and water pressure.  Sounds like you're not in a standard residential house with an external holding tank.

Its a standard residential house with a 5000 gallon holding tank.  The well is at the bottom of the driveway (not a great design) - well pumps are not designed to cycle to create pressure in the lines.  We need more than gravity feed - gravity feed wouldn't even give us 5lbs of pressure in the lines - we know this when the power goes out.  The tank is higher than the house from a gravity feed perspective but you need 40-60lbs of pressure to have a normal water experience in your house - plus we have some pretty intense filters on the line due to the condition of the water.

I have a 500 foot well with a 20 gallon pressure tank in the basement.  It turns on when the pressure drops below 30, off when it gets above 50.  I don't know how deep the well was at my old house, but it was a jet pump in the basement with another 20 gallon expansion tank. That setup is common here, only ever had a sediment and UV filter. To generate that pressure with just gravity, you'd need a 100' tower, so I assumed it was a pump, just weird to me that it has a 5000 gallon holding tank for a residential house.  That's enough water for the average 5 person family to last for 2 weeks. Sewers/septic have always been gravity fed in my prior houses. Interesting the different ways people use to bring water into the house.

I would agree that this set-up is unusual.  As I was educating myself about it and talking to some experts when looking to buy the property they said this one was really oddly designed.  I would do it completely different after what I have learned about these systems.  I think the larger tank has to do with the large amount of landscaping/agriculture as well as for fire suppression.  We use a very small amount of water for a four person family but we have an outsized amount of garden/fruit tress and a small amount of grass/landscaping which uses more water than I would like to admit.

[bigblock440]

Wow, every house I've lived in had 1, the well pump, and everything else ran on gravity and water pressure.  Sounds like you're not in a standard residential house with an external holding tank.

Its a standard residential house with a 5000 gallon holding tank.  The well is at the bottom of the driveway (not a great design) - well pumps are not designed to cycle to create pressure in the lines.  We need more than gravity feed - gravity feed wouldn't even give us 5lbs of pressure in the lines - we know this when the power goes out.  The tank is higher than the house from a gravity feed perspective but you need 40-60lbs of pressure to have a normal water experience in your house - plus we have some pretty intense filters on the line due to the condition of the water.

I have a 500 foot well with a 20 gallon pressure tank in the basement.  It turns on when the pressure drops below 30, off when it gets above 50.  I don't know how deep the well was at my old house, but it was a jet pump in the basement with another 20 gallon expansion tank. That setup is common here, only ever had a sediment and UV filter. To generate that pressure with just gravity, you'd need a 100' tower, so I assumed it was a pump, just weird to me that it has a 5000 gallon holding tank for a residential house.  That's enough water for the average 5 person family to last for 2 weeks. Sewers/septic have always been gravity fed in my prior houses. Interesting the different ways people use to bring water into the house.

I would agree that this set-up is unusual.  As I was educating myself about it and talking to some experts when looking to buy the property they said this one was really oddly designed.  I would do it completely different after what I have learned about these systems.  I think the larger tank has to do with the large amount of landscaping/agriculture as well as for fire suppression.  We use a very small amount of water for a four person family but we have an outsized amount of garden/fruit tress and a small amount of grass/landscaping which uses more water than I would like to admit.

I forgot about the fire suppression, the holding tank of that size now makes sense.

[WSUCoug1994]

Wow, every house I've lived in had 1, the well pump, and everything else ran on gravity and water pressure.  Sounds like you're not in a standard residential house with an external holding tank.

Its a standard residential house with a 5000 gallon holding tank.  The well is at the bottom of the driveway (not a great design) - well pumps are not designed to cycle to create pressure in the lines.  We need more than gravity feed - gravity feed wouldn't even give us 5lbs of pressure in the lines - we know this when the power goes out.  The tank is higher than the house from a gravity feed perspective but you need 40-60lbs of pressure to have a normal water experience in your house - plus we have some pretty intense filters on the line due to the condition of the water.

I have a 500 foot well with a 20 gallon pressure tank in the basement.  It turns on when the pressure drops below 30, off when it gets above 50.  I don't know how deep the well was at my old house, but it was a jet pump in the basement with another 20 gallon expansion tank. That setup is common here, only ever had a sediment and UV filter. To generate that pressure with just gravity, you'd need a 100' tower, so I assumed it was a pump, just weird to me that it has a 5000 gallon holding tank for a residential house.  That's enough water for the average 5 person family to last for 2 weeks. Sewers/septic have always been gravity fed in my prior houses. Interesting the different ways people use to bring water into the house.

I would agree that this set-up is unusual.  As I was educating myself about it and talking to some experts when looking to buy the property they said this one was really oddly designed.  I would do it completely different after what I have learned about these systems.  I think the larger tank has to do with the large amount of landscaping/agriculture as well as for fire suppression.  We use a very small amount of water for a four person family but we have an outsized amount of garden/fruit tress and a small amount of grass/landscaping which uses more water than I would like to admit.

I forgot about the fire suppression, the holding tank of that size now makes sense.

2500 gallons is dedicated to fire suppression - we can't even touch the bottom half of the tank for regular usage.

[PDXTabs]

I pay 5.593+11.550 water+sewer for a total of $17.143/CCF in Portland, OR. Then they add a bunch of other fees Stormwater Off-site, Stormwater On-site, Portland Harbor Superfund, Base Charge.

Last quarter I paid $239.24 for 6CCF of usage. That's right, my usage was $102.86 and the fixed fees were $136.38 for three months of service.

EDITed to add - that does not include garbage or recycling.

[Greystache]

 A few years ago, our city installed smart water meters that can be monitored remotely. I recently received an email from the water department telling me to check for a leak because they noticed that my water meter was showing a continuous flow. I quickly found a leaking valve in my sprinkler system and fixed it the same day. I don't know how long it would have taken me to notice this on my own.

[trygeek]

Trade?

[alcon835]

Sadly, that's pretty normal. Mine starts at around $90 before I start using a drop of water.

[EricEng]

We pay $240 fixed cost before any usage every two months for water/sewage and $75 for garbage in Northern California

I must be a naïve country kid. This is blowing my mind.

I pay about the same in CO.  $95 a month fixed before usage ($30-50 usage).  Then usage comes out to 2 cents a gallon with tiers that go up from there (we always stay in lowest tier).   Cousin in a different county pays a fixed fee of $5, uses 4 times as much and pays about $10 usage.  All single family homes.

[billy]

Our water bill last month (for water and sewer) was $16.41. 

We don't get a separate bill for trash.  This is in MA.

How so low in Massachusetts? that's what you would pay in Mexico.