Wilkes-Barre water rates (Philadelphia, York, Middletown: home, unemployed, utilities)

[frank754]

I just sent a letter to the editor about the water rate (to Times-Leader), which I will quote here. I see they want to raise the rates again. Everything has been going up, and I just realized that the water rate here is about 50% higher than the highest city rate in the US (Atlanta) and over triple that of New York City.
This is already outrageous, we've got to put a stop to this sort of thing, to hell with their shareholders, and if they didn't fix some of the pipes in 100 years, that's their own damn problem.

Here's the letter:

This is a concerned citizen alert about PA American Water wanting to raise its rates. I'm a residential customer in Wilkes-Barre, and my bill last month for 2100 gallons was $30.79 (incl $13 service charge and 2 misc small charges).
Here for 15,000 gallons I would pay $13 service charge, plus volume charge 118.35 (15,000 gals x .007890) plus misc charges (guess at about $7) for a total of $138.35

I read a T-L article about a week ago that people are concerned about the rates, one gentlemen from Middletown NY said it was cheaper there. Today I read a CNN article showing what people pay in 50 cities all around the US:
Heat pops pipes nationwide; brace for higher bills - CNN.com
On that page is a graphic with a link to rates.
They are saying that people paid this much for 15,000 gallons of water (over 7 times what we used) in these cities:
Atlanta (most expensive in USA): $92.51
Imagine that, we are higher than anyone.
Other cities (focusing on the north), for 15,000 gallons:
Baltimore $49.38
Boston $79.24
Chicago $26.32
Detroit $34.66
New York City $46.20
Philadelphia $56.93

People are being nickeled and dimed in every imaginable way from all angles, and if utilities plan to add more burden to an already poor economy with a lot of elderly and unemployed, we have to just say "NO WAY".

[ki0eh]

15,000 gallons sounds more like a typical quarterly comparison, typical home is 4,000-5,000 gallons monthly. Also those rates look generally too low. Methinks the media report misconstrued the underlying study.

Infrastructure is not a free lunch. Home | Report Card for America's Infrastructure

[auntieannie68]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

15,000 gallons sounds more like a typical quarterly comparison, typical home is 4,000-5,000 gallons monthly. Also those rates look generally too low. Methinks the media report misconstrued the underlying study.

Infrastructure is not a free lunch. Home | Report Card for America's Infrastructure

he is correct--i lived in south fl---had a huge home and my water rates here are 2x as much for a much smaller apt

[frank754]

Yes, I do believe people pay quarterly more often than monthly, but the end price would remain the same. Of course with the $13/mo customer charge, PA American Water is hitting us up $39/quarter just to have the account. If we got a quarterly bill for our 2100 gals/mo ( = 6200/qtr) it would be a $39 service charge + about $50 for water + $4 extra (misc fees) for $93 (which is about exactly triple our monthy bill). If we brought up the total usage to 15,000 gals (per quarter) it would be about $70 more, bringing up the bill to around $163/qtr with the triple service charge. and then you could compare it to these other cities' rates.

[GM1258]

I'm paying about $135 a month with Aqua PA here in Thornhurst.
And thats for a family of three.
Our electric bill from PPL also went thru the roof.
Utilities are sky high around here but what can you do??
If you don't pay it they shut you off.
People talk about getting off the grid and going solar but
thats not cheap either.
They get you one way or the other.