Gouged by the DC government for...drinking water?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the PPs are realizing that DC water bills are so baked with fees, they cost 3 times what the burbs cost.

That is likely why the OP is complaining - yes, it could be as much as your cable bill or more.

Our water bill is normally $200+ per month, which is outrageous.

Ours as well. And we're just two people in the house. Two loads of laundry a week, two dishwasher loads a week, two (short) daily showers. It's ridiculous.

You have a leak. Most common is a running toilet.

Unlikely a leak. DC water bills are a thing to behold. Ours is routinely more than $200.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the PPs are realizing that DC water bills are so baked with fees, they cost 3 times what the burbs cost.

That is likely why the OP is complaining - yes, it could be as much as your cable bill or more.

Our water bill is normally $200+ per month, which is outrageous.

Ours as well. And we're just two people in the house. Two loads of laundry a week, two dishwasher loads a week, two (short) daily showers. It's ridiculous.

You have a leak. Most common is a running toilet.

Unlikely a leak. DC water bills are a thing to behold. Ours is routinely more than $200.

We use way more water than PP are usually around $125. Even guests in the house for a week won't get it up to $200. I'd be looking for a leak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:check for leaks

+1. Sounds like there is a leak somewhere.

I've found that usage really only moves the bill up or down 10-20 dollars, after the 100 dollar(ish) base rate calculated from your house/apartment foot print square footage.

Not if there’s a leak. A leaky toilet can costs hundreds of dollars.

No PP. if you don’t live in the District of Columbia, then you don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s very easy to confirm that there’s not a leak by going to the website of DC water.

Each water bill has anywhere from $85-$115 as a starting point. That’s just fees and pass through costs for rebuilding the infrastructure. Water usage is usually about 40 bucks and I don’t think that’s what is complaining about. The big chunk of the bill is sewer fees. Again you get dinged there it’s a pass-through cost for upgrading the infrastructure in the district of Columbia.

As a point of reference, I am a single person but living in a big single-family home That’s relevant because they charge you for all your impermeable surfaces such as roof, driveway, patio, etc. My water bill is routinely $200 a month and I am absolutely certain I have no leak

+1

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:DC Water is a disgusting disgrace of an agency. In most jurisdictions, if you have some sort of plumbing accident - like a leaky toilet, broken pipe, hose left on - you can get a one-off waiver. DC Water will never ever do this. I had my Councilmember request such an exception on my behalf, the CEO agreed, and then never replied to any one of my follow-up emails. Their agents have access to real-time usage data, but they refuse to push this to customers - so if you have a leak or similar such plumbing misadventure, you don’t find out about it until up to 3 days and hundreds of dollars later. And this is nothing compared to those who have been overbilled to the tune of thousands of dollars and had to go to hell and back to get it corrected.

DC Water has to cover its costs somehow. If the choice is to have the people who leave a hose on or delay fixing a leak bear the costs of the water they use, or spread those costs across everyone, I prefer the former. Why should I have to pay because you left a hose on? Let's incentivize responsible behavior.

This would be a reasonable response except that DC water also raises rates to maintain revenue levels when water use goes down. So I could ask you why I should have to pay more for my water because you installed a low flow toilet.

The fees go up if you use more water, and they go up if you use less water. Either way, DC Water has become accustomed to a certain amount of revenue to live on, and it's not going to give that up. We'll all be paying the same even after this sewer project is completed. DC Water will just find other "needs" to spend the money on.

DC Water's salary data is public information. They have (not very helpful) customer service reps earning six solid figures.

There’s a whole lot of people there who make $200k+

It seems very DC that drinking water costs an arm and a leg, and the flunkies who work at the water plant make a quarter-million dollars a year.

Only the CEO. And if you think that the only people who should make $250K work for law firms, in finance or are doctors, then you are part of the problem.

Look at their full payroll and tell me you don’t think it’s massively bloated. I’d love to see a comparison of it between any other municipal water utility.

The sheer number of people there making more than $200,000 is astounding. Some make more than $300,000.

Why aren't you all protesting this? I'm a fed and I think in my small agency there are only about 5 people who make over 200k, none over 300k. Our general pay scale doesn't go over 200k, those 5 are SES.

I'm in Loudoun County and my water bill is about $120-140 every quarter. $140 in the summer when we water the lawn. We're a family of 5 who cooks and eats all meals at home (more dishwashing), lots of laundry. We're also avid gardeners so we water our plants often.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Water is a disgusting disgrace of an agency. In most jurisdictions, if you have some sort of plumbing accident - like a leaky toilet, broken pipe, hose left on - you can get a one-off waiver. DC Water will never ever do this. I had my Councilmember request such an exception on my behalf, the CEO agreed, and then never replied to any one of my follow-up emails. Their agents have access to real-time usage data, but they refuse to push this to customers - so if you have a leak or similar such plumbing misadventure, you don’t find out about it until up to 3 days and hundreds of dollars later. And this is nothing compared to those who have been overbilled to the tune of thousands of dollars and had to go to hell and back to get it corrected.

DC Water has to cover its costs somehow. If the choice is to have the people who leave a hose on or delay fixing a leak bear the costs of the water they use, or spread those costs across everyone, I prefer the former. Why should I have to pay because you left a hose on? Let's incentivize responsible behavior.

This would be a reasonable response except that DC water also raises rates to maintain revenue levels when water use goes down. So I could ask you why I should have to pay more for my water because you installed a low flow toilet.

The fees go up if you use more water, and they go up if you use less water. Either way, DC Water has become accustomed to a certain amount of revenue to live on, and it's not going to give that up. We'll all be paying the same even after this sewer project is completed. DC Water will just find other "needs" to spend the money on.

DC Water's salary data is public information. They have (not very helpful) customer service reps earning six solid figures.

There’s a whole lot of people there who make $200k+

It seems very DC that drinking water costs an arm and a leg, and the flunkies who work at the water plant make a quarter-million dollars a year.

Only the CEO. And if you think that the only people who should make $250K work for law firms, in finance or are doctors, then you are part of the problem.

Look at their full payroll and tell me you don’t think it’s massively bloated. I’d love to see a comparison of it between any other municipal water utility.

The sheer number of people there making more than $200,000 is astounding. Some make more than $300,000.

Why aren't you all protesting this? I'm a fed and I think in my small agency there are only about 5 people who make over 200k, none over 300k. Our general pay scale doesn't go over 200k, those 5 are SES.

I'm in Loudoun County and my water bill is about $120-140 every quarter. $140 in the summer when we water the lawn. We're a family of 5 who cooks and eats all meals at home (more dishwashing), lots of laundry. We're also avid gardeners so we water our plants often.

The problem is that, not unlike the USAO, the accountability structure for DC Water is murky. DC Water is an independent entity managed by a 11 member board, of whom 6 are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Council and the other 5 are appointed by the surrounding jurisdictions.

[Anonymous]

There are more people at DC Water who make $200,000+ than there are at the WHITE HOUSE

[Anonymous]

My DC councilman spends more time talking about bike lanes than he does about crime or wasteful government spending. So we’re kind of all doomed. Please stop electing these crazies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are more people at DC Water who make $200,000+ than there are at the WHITE HOUSE

In all fairness, you need water more than you need the White House.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are more people at DC Water who make $200,000+ than there are at the WHITE HOUSE

Jobs pay what the market dictates. There are tens of thousands of qualified people fighting each other to work for the White House at practically any salary.

To convince an engineer with plenty of other options to wade in feces or an executive who could be running a cushy nonprofit to work at Blue Plains which smells like dookie 24/7 and lacks even the most basic amenities like somewhere to walk for lunch it takes extra money. Hell, ever a CSR needs to be paid more to want to work in that environment, especially considering there is zero transit access so workers must own cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are more people at DC Water who make $200,000+ than there are at the WHITE HOUSE

Jobs pay what the market dictates. There are tens of thousands of qualified people fighting each other to work for the White House at practically any salary.

To convince an engineer with plenty of other options to wade in feces or an executive who could be running a cushy nonprofit to work at Blue Plains which smells like dookie 24/7 and lacks even the most basic amenities like somewhere to walk for lunch it takes extra money. Hell, ever a CSR needs to be paid more to want to work in that environment, especially considering there is zero transit access so workers must own cars.

And yet somehow, someway other cities are able to staff their water plants with salaries that are a small fraction of what DC water pays. The average salary nationwide for water plant people is less than $60,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are more people at DC Water who make $200,000+ than there are at the WHITE HOUSE

Jobs pay what the market dictates. There are tens of thousands of qualified people fighting each other to work for the White House at practically any salary.

To convince an engineer with plenty of other options to wade in feces or an executive who could be running a cushy nonprofit to work at Blue Plains which smells like dookie 24/7 and lacks even the most basic amenities like somewhere to walk for lunch it takes extra money. Hell, ever a CSR needs to be paid more to want to work in that environment, especially considering there is zero transit access so workers must own cars.

And yet somehow, someway other cities are able to staff their water plants with salaries that are a small fraction of what DC water pays. The average salary nationwide for water plant people is less than $60,000.

Which other cities? Because the only ones with comparable cost of living and competition for other jobs are NYC, Boston, SF, and maybe LA. I bet you dollars to doughnuts water plants in those cities are paying comparable salaries.

[Anonymous]

I've lived in the District since 1994 and it is nuts how much water has increased as a utility. My water bill used to be around $30 a month. Now it is routinely $170.