Had to get my home water line replaced. Unexpected.

[CKN]

Just throwing my info in here.

I have water supplied by CT Water Company; my sewer is town run; there is a flat charge for residential sewer service. I believe it is $400/year.

My water company provides (3) levels of insurance for

1) outside water feed from street to house $90/year
2) outside water and sewer $154/year
3) outside water and sewer and inside plumbing. $190/year

I have chosen plan (1) and the distance from the road to my house is about 25 feet ( i am the last house on a dead end, no turnaround street)
Distance of feed doesn't impact cost; it is simply a way of distributing risk with other homeowners; i'll take that.

Looking @ my water feed, i think it is probably leaded steel or galvanized; in 25 years living here, I've never called.


Good thing for the OP'r it was not February; maybe count your blessings.

Some homeowner policies will cover that for a fraction of those prices-at least in my state.

 

[tbm5690]

If you have municipal water (or other common supplier), you get a bill for water delivered. Most places charge for sewer based on the amount of water delivered. (Your hint here is how many sewer lines have a meter on them).

In our area, your sewer bill is based on the lowest month/quarter consumption, typically winter. That removed irrigation water from being billed for sewer services, but you pay the water rate for the delivered water. (My example is I am billed for 14,000 gallons per quarter for sewer service (my winter water consumption), but my summer bill has the sewer at 14,000 gallons and water at 48,000 gallons (irrigating 0.5 acres in dry weather).

(Background - I designed the comprehensive sewer plans for multiple communities in my area - including determining required billing rates to operate and maintain the system components).

Wish that were the case for me...last month my consumption was 42k gallons with summer irrigation and wastewater charge was 10k gallons. My actual wastewater deposit on a monthly basis is 2-3k gallons, so somehow they know it's not all wastewater in the summer but still over-charge for what I'm actually putting down the drain.

 

[chrlsful]

so many variables, charging schemes... a home owner has to be savvy.
Many (even 'double wide', not a trailer to me) sales agreements havea engineer's schematic (called 'as built') passed on before time of closing so folks know the system they'll B getting into ('pretty picture' ona piece of paper).
When moving in (I'm an ex-builder) I took a tape & string, marked out my system (twn water, private septic) and found the drive (dirt) went over some of it. Afraid of crushing I moved the drive. Septic must B pumped periodically to prevent an invert. 1st pump job the huge truck almost drove over the danger spot. It could crush (at minimum upset the gravity feed nature of the system). At worse (my case) it could sink the D box (distribution from house to field) so effluent would pool there, not move on into field (guy's comment above on grass color). All invisible. All surface changes by string of owners (how savvy?) over (my case) one hundred yrs plus.
- a home owner has to be savvy.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

That would only work if he has sewer service since sewer rates are based on the amount of water consumed and assumed to proportionally go back down the drain.

My old house in the same town, just 3 miles away had sewer service but it was fixedat $150/quarter.

How old was the previous installation?

Pre-2007. The previous owners did not install the water.

Was the grass growing like crazy at the location of the leak?

Surprisingly, no. The trees do a good job of keeping the grass from growing in this spot. Just super soggy. I thought it was soggy because the sun changing it's angle this time of year was being blocked by the tree.

Interesting it's an external meter in your climate, is that because it's a mobile home or are all houses that way in NY despite the colder temps?

For this specific water authority, it depends on how far away you are from the road. They want it as close to the main as possible so they don't have to repair it. If I was 15 or 20 feet off the road , it would be in the crawlspace. My old house was 15 feet off the road and the meter was inside. There's a few mobile homes around here with meters inside.

One funny thing about that - I didn't realize the peter pulled up. I was reaching down to my shoulder to kill the water last week!

 

[Pablo]

I NEVER had a sewer bill based on water usage. Is that a east coast thing?

On a well and septic now though.

Anything breaks, on my own for sure. OP you did fine.

 

[atikovi]

I NEVER had a sewer bill based on water usage. Is that a east coast thing?

I can't think of a more equitable way. The more water you use the more sewer service you require. I find those places that charge a flat rate pretty unfair. Why should a single homeowner pay the same rate as a family of six or more?

 

[chrlsful]

I'm forgetting, lazy, wont re-read whole thread-

Was the grass growing like crazy at the location of the leak?

"...Surprisingly, no. The trees do a good job of keeping the grass from growing in this spot. Just super soggy...."

is it a leach field (septic rather than sewer)? If tree roots intrude into a leach field U will have big problems.

 

[Leo99]

I was never billed for sewer based on water usage in NY or SC.
I think that is more of a county thing and what sewer district you are in.
We have city water company and county sewer.

My water and sewer charges are on the same bill from the local township. They do some fancy math as explained above so that I'm not charged sewer fees for water used in the sprinklers for my lawn. Some towns will run a separate water meter for the sprinklers but my town doesn't allow that.

 

[alarmguy]

My water and sewer charges are on the same bill from the local township. They do some fancy math as explained above so that I'm not charged sewer fees for water used in the sprinklers for my lawn. Some towns will run a separate water meter for the sprinklers but my town doesn't allow that.

Yes you are correct, the county next to us. You can pay for a separate meter to be installed.
Our county doesn’t matter it’s a fixed rate

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I can't think of a more equitable way. The more water you use the more sewer service you require. I find those places that charge a flat rate pretty unfair. Why should a single homeowner pay the same rate as a family of six or more?

I never thought about it, but that does make more sense. My last house (same zipcode/ village) was on public sewer and public water. The sewer was operated by the town since the mid 90s. I really have no idea how that neighborhood dealt with septic. There is a VERY high water table and I'm not sure how anyone had any leeching going on. It's so low that there's a giant sewer pump that pumps the sewage uphill to the main part of the village.

The water comes from the next county over, oddly enough.

 

[brianl703]

I really have no idea how that neighborhood dealt with septic. There is a VERY high water table and I'm not sure how anyone had any leeching going on.

I've seen "mound" systems where they basically have a pile of specific soil for the drain field, no idea how long those have been around. But I think they may be used to deal with a high water table.

 

[chrlsful]

yes, rather than "level lawns". But they may B on sewer (no leachate)
straight to the muni treatment facility. a home owner has to be savvy.

 

[Pablo]

I can't think of a more equitable way. The more water you use the more sewer service you require. I find those places that charge a flat rate pretty unfair. Why should a single homeowner pay the same rate as a family of six or more?

I wasn't judging. It does sound a bit more fair. I don't think we have our old bills, I think it was a flat rate. Not sure anymore. The only thing I can think of if weighing fairness, just off the cuff, poor family of 12 paying more in a 1600 ft sq house than a couple in a mansion.

Anyway, where I used to live: https://www.duvallwa.gov/162/Sewer-System-Information

Based on history and “equity” the rates have been created to try and balance the heavy residential load the city must treat relative to the very low commercial customers we serve. A slight tipping of the fees from residential to commercial does not provide straight across equity and has a dramatic change to the fee structure. Further pushing rates down will increase the costs for new connections which are already fairly high and may further curb development within Duvall.

The option of variable rates for all customers based directly on water consumption has been discussed in the past. However, this approach may penalize users with high irrigation or other non ‐ sewer water use. The revenue and expenditure flows for a small municipality or operator are critical and swings on a monthly basis of high and low charges make business very difficult to manage. In addition, because the sewer system costs are relatively fixed, fluctuations in flow ‐ based rates would require a higher contingency, frequent rate evaluations and possible rate changes, and possible higher rates to cover shortfalls. Smaller operators such as Duvall tend to charge against a fixed fee structure because of these concerns.

 

[PimTac]

I can't imagine any town would have a sewer system ONLY, and not have water lines as well, thus the notion of sewer meters are pretty far fetched. Installing a 2 inch water service line for a town costs a fraction of what sewers that are many feet in diameter cost to put in.

There is a lot more to a municipal water system than just running lines. You need an ample source, backup storage, purification, testing and more.

 

[PimTac]

I NEVER had a sewer bill based on water usage. Is that a east coast thing?

On a well and septic now though.

Anything breaks, on my own for sure. OP you did fine.

Tacoma does it. I’m guessing Seattle is the same. I think it’s common in the cities. We also pay for storm sewer which is the rain that falls on your property. Storm sewers are separate from sanitary sewers.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I NEVER had a sewer bill based on water usage. Is that a east coast thing?

On a well and septic now though.

Anything breaks, on my own for sure. OP you did fine.

Here in the suburbs of St. Louis my sewer bill is based in the winter quarter’s usage which pretty much eliminates irrigation, pools and water that is used for washing cars. Seems pretty reasonable to me. My sewer is $60/month for a family of 5.

 

[chrlsful]

"...NEVER had a sewer bill based on water usage..."
just like the service we have @ garage (brings as much oil as he takes away, antifreez is different tho) rather than measure it all they just get the effluent. They geta break tho as not all "used water" goes to da treatment plant, eh?

Same here - own water (shallow, live ina swamp) their 'sewar', they can have my chit - I dont need to think abt every 3 or 8 yr pump jobs any more (to prevent 'invert' effecting my leach field).

 

[atikovi]

Here in the suburbs of St. Louis my sewer bill is based in the winter quarter’s usage which pretty much eliminates irrigation, pools and water that is used for washing cars. Seems pretty reasonable to me. My sewer is $60/month for a family of 5.

My total water and sewer is about $90 a quarter for one person.

"...NEVER had a sewer bill based on water usage..."
just like the service we have @ garage (brings as much oil as he takes away, antifreez is different tho) rather than measure it all they just get the effluent. They geta break tho as not all "used water" goes to da treatment plant, eh?

Same here - own water (shallow, live ina swamp) their 'sewar', they can have my chit - I dont need to think abt every 3 or 8 yr pump jobs any more (to prevent 'invert' effecting my leach field).

What chew takin 'bout Willis?