But our water is billed in 100 cubic foot increments. We use 300 cubic feet (2244 gallons) most months unless we water the garden a lot. So even if we reduced our usage 50% we'd still be billed for 200 cubic feet and save about $7 on the bill.
Having the bill rounded to whole-number CCFs is annoying, but in the long run it doesn't matter. The bill is actually based on the actual meter reading, not the (rounded) incremental usage. For example, say you actually use 150 cubic feet per month and your meter reading is 10 at the beginning of the period. After the first month, your meter reading will be 11 (actually 11.5) and you'll get billed for 1 CCF, then the next month your meter reading will be 13 and you'll get billed for 2 CCFs.
Atlanta's water is some of the most expensive in the country (I guess Flint might be worse now) because the Federal courts forced the city to spend $4 billion dollars to fix the sewers so that they'd quit overflowing raw sewage into the rivers every time it rained. To pay for it, after the consent decree the water rates increased 12%+ per year for several years running.
The base charge is $13.12/month, then the first three CCFs are $12.32 each, then CCFs 4 - 6 are $18.98 each, then CCFs 7 and above are $21.85 each.
My typical usage tends to vary between 3 and 4 CCFs, so my bill is usually either or $50.08 or $69.06. The scary thing is that (I'm told) the
average residential usage is something like 8 CCFs, so the average water bill here is $150 per month!
I think water rates can vary quite a bit even between closeby juristictions in the same region.
Yep. Water rates in the metro Atlanta suburbs are
much lower because they haven't been sued (yet). Well, except for Dekalb County -- they've got a $1.5 billion consent decree to deal with now, so their rates are in the process of being increased. I don't know if Cobb and Gwinnett have handled their infrastructure better, or if they're spared because many of the folks out there are still on septic systems, or if they're just next in Chattahoochee Riverkeeper's crosshairs.
The water bill doesn't bother me much though, since it is mostly based on usage. What bothers me is the damn
trash pickup bill, which is a flat fee (based on the width of my lot, of all things!) regardless of how much (or how little) I throw out and is something like $45/month!