Why is it that these charges on my utility bills cost more than the utilities?

My water bill:

Base Service Charge: $11.00
Water Consumption - Retail: $0.61

The service charge is 18 times the cost of the water.

6/3/2009 5:36:04 PM

because they'd lose money if they only charged everyone <$5

you paid $11.61 for a month's worth of fresh water. i wouldn't complain.

[Edited on June 3, 2009 at 5:42 PM. Reason : you probably make that in 10 mins if you figured your salary divided by 40 hrs/week ]

6/3/2009 5:41:31 PM

you forget how important fresh water is, so shut the fuck up

6/3/2009 5:49:51 PM

Air is important too, but you can bet your ass I'd be bitching if I had to pay 12 bucks a month for it.

6/3/2009 8:35:57 PM

The water supply lines and sewer lines are still connected to your house and in service, whether you use them or not.

Think of it like paying a municipal-wide rent for the services that are hooked up to your house for your convenience.

We also don't pay shit for water, so it's really nothing to complain about. Just wait til it gets more scarce in the future and the prices become $rape.

6/3/2009 8:51:16 PM

So, what is your total water bill? Mine is always close to $50/month, which includes trash pickup, but MAN!

I figure there's a leak somewhere between the meter and the house.

Water Base Charge: $3.00
Water $3.28/ 1000 gallons
Sewer Base Charge: $3.00
Sewer $5.25/ 1000 gallons
Trash pickup: $11.75

So just the zero usage charges run $17.75/month.

6/3/2009 9:07:10 PM

Quote :

"you paid $11.61 for a month's worth of fresh water. i wouldn't complain."

6/3/2009 9:09:11 PM

that's what i wondered too. "delivery charges" for electricity last month was $41, the actual usage was like $25-30.

6/4/2009 9:14:12 AM

Quote :

"So, what is your total water bill? Mine is always close to $50/month"

A month, or every two months?


Mine was always $79, but we got billed every two months.

6/4/2009 9:26:16 AM

Quote :

"Air is important too, but you can bet your ass I'd be bitching if I had to pay 12 bucks a month for it."

If the government could regulate it, they would charge you for it

6/4/2009 1:09:55 PM

Quote :

"If the government could regulate it, they would charge you for it"

It's about to be, and they are.

Cap and Trade.

The extra cost of business is going to be passed down to the consumer.

6/4/2009 1:53:09 PM

Quote :

"you paid $11.61 for a month's worth of fresh water. i wouldn't complain."

No he didn't. He paid $11 for the privilege to have them record his water usage and bill him individually. He could move out, foreclose his home, or cut off all utilities and he won't continue to get the base $11/month charge.

If he lived next to 9 more people who use $0.61 of water every month, then it'd make sense to pipe all of it through one flow metering station, split the cost, and tell the city to take the other 9 and shove them up their ass.

As it is, LimpyNuts has no motivation to avoid doubling, quadrupling, or quintupling he water use, or otherwise use it as responsibly as what he's doing now. I mean really, wtf LimpyNuts, stop helping the environment when the city is clearly telling you not to. Stop it. STOP IT!

6/4/2009 3:38:57 PM

He paid $11 for 24/7/365 unfettered access to clean water. Not bad!

If you make just $2,000 a month, that's 1/181 of your monthly expenses, haha.

6/4/2009 3:46:44 PM

Are you incapable of itemizing costs?

He paid $11.61 to have a pipe somewhere on his property spew water that trickled down through a river and got processed in a municipal facility. If that was all he was paying, he would still be making trips back and fourth with a water jug on his head.

The reality is that he also paid (or continues to pay) for copper pipes through his mortgage, house price, or rent. Copper, with 61 years of reserves left on Earth, seems to be one of the most sustainable aspects of his water infrastructure when you consider the increasing scarcity of abundant clean water and the likelihood of his job being outsourced to India sometime soon.

You're also not taking into account whatever taxes he paid that went to subsidize his neighborhood's use of water. Superfund EPA projects inefficiently cleaning up industrial messes that would otherwise pollute the water (and maybe still are). State and city expensive restoration projects for wetlands and other natural lands. Those aren't in his water bill, but he still pays for them.

And it's not like the city water treatment and distribution system costs anything more than $11/month for each customer anyway. He may be 'blessed' with the luxury of water where he lives, but it's a fact that just happens to have very little to do with the fact that he pays $11/month for water, and a fact that does nothing to justify the fact that he should still have to pay that amount when he has low water use.

[Edited on June 4, 2009 at 5:07 PM. Reason : ]

6/4/2009 4:57:20 PM

Yeah, you're right. Good use of 15 minutes of your time... do you have a Twitter feed?

6/4/2009 5:01:32 PM

GUYS THIS IS AMERICA. I'LL USE ALL THE FUCKING FRESH WATER I WANT AND I WILL NOT PAY FOR IT. FUCK YOU.

/notloungeappropriate

6/4/2009 5:08:18 PM

too cheap to meter

6/4/2009 5:11:41 PM

hahaha

mrfrog = willy nilly?

6/4/2009 5:53:51 PM

no,

mrfrog = EMCE

6/4/2009 8:31:15 PM

Quote :

"He paid $11 for 24/7/365 unfettered access to clean water. Not bad! If you make just $2,000 a month, that's 1/181 of your monthly expenses, haha."

Coincidentally I just received my annual water quality report yesterday and the water is barely in compliance with regulations at the source. It's not even drinkable by the time it gets to my house. I filter it twce before drinking it and it still tastes funky.

Notice the post above from jbtilley. Base charges of $3/month for each of water and sewer. My base charges are $11 and $25. I pay $36/month (6 times his) to use no water.

I'm being assraped by the local government, simply because they can. Government run monopolies are supposed to protect the consumers from the assraping that accompanies corporate monopolies. You and I both know that if some corporation were in charge of delivering the water instead, there'd be regulations galore limiting both profitability and cost to the consumer.

6/5/2009 10:02:06 AM

Quote :

"A month, or every two months?"

Per month. About $575-600/year on water/sewer/trash.

And yeah ^ situation is messed up. I'd start asking neighbors about that. Maybe they have you at the industrial complex base rates.

[Edited on June 5, 2009 at 10:41 AM. Reason : -]

6/5/2009 10:41:38 AM

AAAAAAHHHHHHH DROPPING LOADS

7/23/2009 10:20:25 PM

Quote :

"Copper, with 61 years of reserves left on Earth,"

source?

7/24/2009 11:34:18 AM