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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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 is a highly regressive tax that costs people hundreds of dollars a month for a project that the federal government is already paying for.

No, if you read the thread, pp wants a freebie for leaving her house on or similar "plumbing accident." The other issues about tunnels from runoff are separate.

[Anonymous]

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.

You didn't read beyond the second sentence, did you? DC Water customer service reps have access to real-time data on water usage but yet DC Water refuses to give households access to that data. So instead of finding out about excess water consumption in real-time, DC Water makes you wait up to three days to learn about it. If DC Water were actually interested in "incentiz[ing] responsible behavior", it would give its customers the information necessary to reduce their water usage. But it's not. What they are interested in is maximizing water bills, which is why they have systems which unnecessarily delay customer notifications of excess water usage. But, hey, if you get your kicks from being the edgy DCumer who defends the most rapacious utility in the DMV area, more power to you.

I'm all for real time data, but the kind of person who can't figure out that their toilet is running or their hose is on isn't going to log in and check regularly. And even if there was a high usage alert email or text, might not take action or figure it out quickly. There will still be a group of people who want an exception. And I would rather them not get one.

[Anonymous]

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.

You didn't read beyond the second sentence, did you? DC Water customer service reps have access to real-time data on water usage but yet DC Water refuses to give households access to that data. So instead of finding out about excess water consumption in real-time, DC Water makes you wait up to three days to learn about it. If DC Water were actually interested in "incentiz[ing] responsible behavior", it would give its customers the information necessary to reduce their water usage. But it's not. What they are interested in is maximizing water bills, which is why they have systems which unnecessarily delay customer notifications of excess water usage. But, hey, if you get your kicks from being the edgy DCumer who defends the most rapacious utility in the DMV area, more power to you.

Lots of incorrect responses in this thread - you can look up your daily water usage on the DC Water website.

You can also sign up to get alerts if there is a spike in your water consumption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Water bills increased quite a lot (tripled?) about two years ago due to DC Water's Clean River Project. Basically, our sewers have stayed the same since colonial times and they are now being rebuilt. We are footing the bill. I has to be done. No getting around it.

This is the correct answer. We're paying the tab for a new sewer system.

Except the federal government is covering most of the cost.

Nope - in fact the Federal Government is paying none of the cost of fixing the CSO system in DC except for what they pay in water bills.

And that capital improvement project started 15 years ago.

The CSO repairs FWIW were required by a Federal Court order enforcing the Chesapeake Compact to clean up the Chesapeake Bay - DC is actually going to be first "state" in the watershed to get in compliance with the order which in the long run is going to save DC money - some of the other states (PA in particular) have been dragging their feet which has only increased the cost of compliance.

And the program has worked - the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers are dramatically cleaner in just 15 years to the point that dolphins and otters have returned and they are estimating that the Anacostia will be safe to swim in by around 2030 and safe to eat fish from by 2035.

And as I understand it the fees are not supposed to be permanent and expire when the bonds are paid off.

Having said that we don't trust the water consumption numbers from DC Water at all - I have a spread sheet of our water bills going back 20 years and despite installing low flow toilets and an energy efficient washer/dishwasher and having the same number of people in the house our consumption has almost doubled and we've also had some months with just wild spikes - our bill will go from $200 to $500 then back to $200 with no repairs made that ameliorated any leaks and two different plumbers have been unable to find any leaks.

[Anonymous]

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.

You didn't read beyond the second sentence, did you? DC Water customer service reps have access to real-time data on water usage but yet DC Water refuses to give households access to that data. So instead of finding out about excess water consumption in real-time, DC Water makes you wait up to three days to learn about it. If DC Water were actually interested in "incentiz[ing] responsible behavior", it would give its customers the information necessary to reduce their water usage. But it's not. What they are interested in is maximizing water bills, which is why they have systems which unnecessarily delay customer notifications of excess water usage. But, hey, if you get your kicks from being the edgy DCumer who defends the most rapacious utility in the DMV area, more power to you.

Lots of incorrect responses in this thread - you can look up your daily water usage on the DC Water website.

You can also sign up to get alerts if there is a spike in your water consumption.

Hilarious that you are calling out others for being inaccurate when you are the one who is painfully ignorant of the details. Even if you are inclined to log into the website (DC Water no longer has a functional app) every day to monitor your water usage, the data on there is a day old by the time you can access it. The water consumption alerts have a three day lag, so you only get well after the problem has manifested. DC Water has access to the data in real time, but doesn’t give it to its customers. Explain why that would be if it is interested in actually reducing water consumption and preventing its customers from running up massive bills?

[Anonymous]

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.

You didn't read beyond the second sentence, did you? DC Water customer service reps have access to real-time data on water usage but yet DC Water refuses to give households access to that data. So instead of finding out about excess water consumption in real-time, DC Water makes you wait up to three days to learn about it. If DC Water were actually interested in "incentiz[ing] responsible behavior", it would give its customers the information necessary to reduce their water usage. But it's not. What they are interested in is maximizing water bills, which is why they have systems which unnecessarily delay customer notifications of excess water usage. But, hey, if you get your kicks from being the edgy DCumer who defends the most rapacious utility in the DMV area, more power to you.

I'm all for real time data, but the kind of person who can't figure out that their toilet is running or their hose is on isn't going to log in and check regularly. And even if there was a high usage alert email or text, might not take action or figure it out quickly. There will still be a group of people who want an exception. And I would rather them not get one.

The fact that some people won’t take action based on real time information is a justification for not providing real time information to all? Where do you people find this logic?

Anyone who has owned a house for any period of time knows that plumbing misadventures happen from time to time through no fault of the occupants. And it is for that reason that most water utilities - bar DC Water - are willing to waive the costs of such accidents on a one-time basis.

[Anonymous]

https://www.dcwater.com/sites/default/files/hcm_docs/employee_database.pdf

[Anonymous]

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 is a highly regressive tax that costs people hundreds of dollars a month for a project that the federal government is already paying for.

No, if you read the thread, pp wants a freebie for leaving her house on or similar "plumbing accident." The other issues about tunnels from runoff are separate.

“I’ve never paid a DC Water bill in my life and have no idea what I’m talking about.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Water bills increased quite a lot (tripled?) about two years ago due to DC Water's Clean River Project. Basically, our sewers have stayed the same since colonial times and they are now being rebuilt. We are footing the bill. I has to be done. No getting around it.

and, ironically, water usage is down because of low flow toilets, faucets, etc so they have to charge more to cover the costs.

Don't get me wrong, I support efforts to consume less but in areas like ours, where there is not a potential water shortage, that comes with some unintended consequences.

There absolutely is a potential water shortage in our area.

No there isn't. We are not California or Arizona. We aren't Maine either but there is no danger of running out of potable water in DC.

Dumb!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Water bills increased quite a lot (tripled?) about two years ago due to DC Water's Clean River Project. Basically, our sewers have stayed the same since colonial times and they are now being rebuilt. We are footing the bill. I has to be done. No getting around it.

and, ironically, water usage is down because of low flow toilets, faucets, etc so they have to charge more to cover the costs.

Don't get me wrong, I support efforts to consume less but in areas like ours, where there is not a potential water shortage, that comes with some unintended consequences.

There absolutely is a potential water shortage in our area.

No there isn't. We are not California or Arizona. We aren't Maine either but there is no danger of running out of potable water in DC.

Dumb!

If you think DC is going to run out of water then you must believe that nowhere is safe. Only recourse to move to Alaska and become one of those homesteaders/preppers.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

City water is super expensive, even in the city of alexandria it's through the roof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Water bills increased quite a lot (tripled?) about two years ago due to DC Water's Clean River Project. Basically, our sewers have stayed the same since colonial times and they are now being rebuilt. We are footing the bill. I has to be done. No getting around it.

and, ironically, water usage is down because of low flow toilets, faucets, etc so they have to charge more to cover the costs.

Don't get me wrong, I support efforts to consume less but in areas like ours, where there is not a potential water shortage, that comes with some unintended consequences.

There absolutely is a potential water shortage in our area.

No there isn't. We are not California or Arizona. We aren't Maine either but there is no danger of running out of potable water in DC.

Dumb!

If you think DC is going to run out of water then you must believe that nowhere is safe. Only recourse to move to Alaska and become one of those homesteaders/preppers.

Everyone is vulnerable to drought. DC is less vulnerable, but DC isn't immune.

[Anonymous]

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.