How much do you pay for water? (Norristown, Easton: loan, house)

[jmoser201]

Just trying to get an idea of what other people in the area are paying for water. I live in the Norristown area and have PA American Water and am paying $1.0214 per 100 gallons which seems high to me.

[JohnZ963]

Somewhere around $4 and change for 1,000 gallons, Lehigh Valley area.

[mrknowitall526]

I have a well - so just the cost of the electricity to run the pump! :-)

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by jmoser201

Just trying to get an idea of what other people in the area are paying for water. I live in the Norristown area and have PA American Water and am paying $1.0214 per 100 gallons which seems high to me.

We have Easton Suburban Water and it's $0.0049/ gallon so $0.49 per 100 gallons.

Source

[ki0eh]

Water rates are interesting. Some places have a high minimum and low per-thousand, and vice versa. What the minimum includes for usage varies from place to place as well. Some places still have the declining-block rates where the per-thousand charge declines after the first 10,000, 50,000 or 100,000 gallons, too.

One way to equalize is to assume a typical household uses 4,000 gal/month (12,000 gal/quarter), and then to see what that household pays.

Let's say Place A is quarterly, with a $60.00 minimum including the first 5,000 gallons, then $4.00 per thousand afterward.
Quarterly the imagined typical house pays $60 + ((12-5) x $4) = $88.

Place B is monthly, $25.00 minimum including the first 1,000 gallons, then $3.00 per thousand afterward.
Monthly our imagined typical house is $25 + ((4-1) x $3) = $34, which makes it $102/quarter.

So $3 per thousand can easily be more expensive than $4 per thousand.

It's not unusual for a small water system to have a loan payment approaching or even exceeding the cost of the remainder of its operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, whether fixed or variable. It's also not uncommon for such systems to pump 30% or more out of the water plant than the sum of what runs through the customer water meters, breaking the tie with customer revenue and usage variation even more.

In rate setting theory, typically the base rate should cover fixed expenses, and the per-thousand variable cost of production type expenses. However, water purveyors are also sensitive to the "little old lady around the corner" who "doesn't use hardly any water" and might not push this theory to its logical extreme. The communities with declining-block rates often create an indirect subsidy for the big water-using industry thereby.

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by mrknowitall526

I have a well - so just the cost of the electricity to run the pump! :-)

You also get the liability for water quality and the unplanned operation and maintenance expense.

I will admit this is unusual, but when I connected our house to a private water company (no mandatory connection in our township, and fortunately no tapping fee either) the monthly electric bill went down by more than the amount the water bill went up. No more water staining either, one of our neighbors (her "water's fine") has chronic kidney disease, possibly associated with copper poisoning, and all their fixtures had shades of blue and red staining.

[ki0eh]

Oh, Easton Suburban is painful to compare using my imagined typical. Cubic feet meters are more typical for gas service than for water. Someone years ago must have gotten a good deal on meters that they now feel stuck with.

Easton Suburban Water Authority - no minimum usage included in the base.

100 cf x 7.48 gal/cf = 748 gal per ESWA "unit".

The 12,000 gal typical is (12,000 / 748 ) = 16.04 units which would be read as 17 units.

$22.05 + (17 x $3.65) = $84.10/quarter

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

Oh, Easton Suburban is painful to compare using my imagined typical. Cubic feet meters are more typical for gas service than for water. Someone years ago must have gotten a good deal on meters that they now feel stuck with.

Easton Suburban Water Authority - no minimum usage included in the base.

100 cf x 7.48 gal/cf = 748 gal per ESWA "unit".

The 12,000 gal typical is (12,000 / 748 ) = 16.04 units which would be read as 17 units.

$22.05 + (17 x $3.65) = $84.10/quarter

So my last bill with ESWA was $52.50 for 89 days (almost a full quarter) for 900 gallons. So about $0.058 per gallon on average.

The largest bill that I can see is $80.45 for 1,600 gallons (for 90 days) or $0.053/ gallon.

I'm a bit confused by the pricing structure you described, but do these numbers work with the formula above?

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by blazerj

So my last bill with ESWA was $52.50 for 89 days (almost a full quarter) for 900 gallons. So about $0.058 per gallon on average.

The largest bill that I can see is $80.45 for 1,600 gallons (for 90 days) or $0.053/ gallon.

I'm a bit confused by the pricing structure you described, but do these numbers work with the formula above?

I get the $80.45 for 16 units (which is 1,600 cubic feet, which x 7.48 gallons/cubic foot = 11,968 gallons). On a per gallon basis for that quarter that's $0.0067/gallon (or 0.67 cents/gallon).