Anonymous
05/16/2023 12:54
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks. It's a bit crazy that some of us are paying per month nearly what others are paying per quarter!
That is crazy - but I just remembered something, our Arlington bills also include trash and recycling!
So for our $315 bill that was 15,000 gallons:
$87 or $29/month was for water
$154 or $51/month was for sewer
$75 or $25/month was for trash and recycling
Maybe other jurisdictions cover sewer expenses through taxes instead of billing it alongside water usage?
Oh - thank you! I don't pay for this in DC (or I guess I do through taxes, but I don't pay any monthly bill).
Outside of Arlington, in FFX county (Burke, Springfield, Annandale, etc.), do I need to tack on sewer/trash/recycling services?
Sewer is part of water bill. You need to add trash/recycling. Ours is 50/mo for trash/recycling.
Anonymous
05/16/2023 11:30
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:NP, Fairfax County, and I am wondering if we have a hidden water leak. Just paid $336 for 24,000 gallons of water use, which seems incredibly high. Lots of showers, dishes, laundry, but we don't water our yard.
We pay separately for trash (American, included in HOA fee). A few years we moved from Fairfax City, where the city handled trash collection, and I would move back in a heartbeat if interest rates were lower. Not a fan of the county.
Yeah, that seems high. I'd call the county and ask for an inspection. We had a high water bill and were trying to figure out why but at the same time it must have alerted something with Arlington county because showed up to check our line. Just learned there is a leak and unfortunately, it's on the part of the line we are responsible for. Now waiting to find out just how expensive it will be to fix
Not that it's helpful now but in the future, you should consider the add on insurance you can buy through Dominion for water and sewer line repairs. We had a sewer line breakage a few months ago and thankfully we have this insurance and it completely covered the repair. Home in my area were all built late 70's/early 80's and there's water line breaks going on like clockwork around here.
Anonymous
05/14/2023 16:08
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Fairfax County, family of 3. $35-40 per quarter. Have septic tank, so no sewer charges.
Anonymous
05/14/2023 09:59
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:NP, Fairfax County, and I am wondering if we have a hidden water leak. Just paid $336 for 24,000 gallons of water use, which seems incredibly high. Lots of showers, dishes, laundry, but we don't water our yard.
We pay separately for trash (American, included in HOA fee). A few years we moved from Fairfax City, where the city handled trash collection, and I would move back in a heartbeat if interest rates were lower. Not a fan of the county.
Is that 24,000 gallons in a month? Because yeah, that's a lot of water.
Even if that's in a quarter that's a lot! Our average for a family of 4 in Fairfax county is 9k gallons of use a quarter! I would definitely look for leaks.
Agreed. Put food dye in the toilet tanks. If nothing shows up then pick a time where there is no use and look at your mains meter.
Fairfax water here too and my bill is the same this quarter. Wondering if there are any leaks and if fairfax water has a way of checking?
They suggest just what the PP says: that if you can look at your meter, to turn everything off and see if it's still increasing with no water usage. Also to put food dye in your toilet tank and see if it goes into the bowl within 1/2 hour to look for a running toilet. But if you water your lawn regularly plus use water liberally, it's not inconceivable that your water usage would be that high without a leak.
Anonymous
05/14/2023 05:02
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:NP, Fairfax County, and I am wondering if we have a hidden water leak. Just paid $336 for 24,000 gallons of water use, which seems incredibly high. Lots of showers, dishes, laundry, but we don't water our yard.
We pay separately for trash (American, included in HOA fee). A few years we moved from Fairfax City, where the city handled trash collection, and I would move back in a heartbeat if interest rates were lower. Not a fan of the county.
Is that 24,000 gallons in a month? Because yeah, that's a lot of water.
Even if that's in a quarter that's a lot! Our average for a family of 4 in Fairfax county is 9k gallons of use a quarter! I would definitely look for leaks.
Agreed. Put food dye in the toilet tanks. If nothing shows up then pick a time where there is no use and look at your mains meter.
Fairfax water here too and my bill is the same this quarter. Wondering if there are any leaks and if fairfax water has a way of checking?
Anonymous
05/13/2023 16:52
Subject: Re:Water bill NOVA
Wow, our quarterly WSSC water bill is pushing $400 for our family 5. Fairfax is looking nice.
Anonymous
05/12/2023 23:31
Subject: Re:Water bill NOVA
This is why I always insist on my utilities being included in my rent. I know that's not possible for everyone but it's great to have.
Anonymous
05/12/2023 13:02
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:NP, Fairfax County, and I am wondering if we have a hidden water leak. Just paid $336 for 24,000 gallons of water use, which seems incredibly high. Lots of showers, dishes, laundry, but we don't water our yard.
We pay separately for trash (American, included in HOA fee). A few years we moved from Fairfax City, where the city handled trash collection, and I would move back in a heartbeat if interest rates were lower. Not a fan of the county.
Yeah, that seems high. I'd call the county and ask for an inspection. We had a high water bill and were trying to figure out why but at the same time it must have alerted something with Arlington county because showed up to check our line. Just learned there is a leak and unfortunately, it's on the part of the line we are responsible for. Now waiting to find out just how expensive it will be to fix
If it is a leak, ffx water provides a one time forgiveness - they'll lower your bill. of course, ask for that if there is a leak and after you remediate the leak
Anonymous
05/12/2023 12:28
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:Fairfax Water - about $125/quarter
Same here. Only 2 adults, though, and we get a lot of takeout.
Anonymous
05/12/2023 11:36
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:NP, Fairfax County, and I am wondering if we have a hidden water leak. Just paid $336 for 24,000 gallons of water use, which seems incredibly high. Lots of showers, dishes, laundry, but we don't water our yard.
We pay separately for trash (American, included in HOA fee). A few years we moved from Fairfax City, where the city handled trash collection, and I would move back in a heartbeat if interest rates were lower. Not a fan of the county.
The trash/recycling quality for American cratered in the pandemic and prices went up. We had it for a decade before with no trouble/great rates, but the last few years have been abysmal. Hopefully it will get better.
Anonymous
05/12/2023 11:29
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:NP, Fairfax County, and I am wondering if we have a hidden water leak. Just paid $336 for 24,000 gallons of water use, which seems incredibly high. Lots of showers, dishes, laundry, but we don't water our yard.
We pay separately for trash (American, included in HOA fee). A few years we moved from Fairfax City, where the city handled trash collection, and I would move back in a heartbeat if interest rates were lower. Not a fan of the county.
Yeah, that seems high. I'd call the county and ask for an inspection. We had a high water bill and were trying to figure out why but at the same time it must have alerted something with Arlington county because showed up to check our line. Just learned there is a leak and unfortunately, it's on the part of the line we are responsible for. Now waiting to find out just how expensive it will be to fix
Anonymous
05/12/2023 11:07
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:$154 per quarter in Town of Vienna for an avg consumption of 8,000 gallons. Town rates are higher than surrounding communities on Fairfax Water.
Ok wow you don't use much sewer. We're in ToV also and pay about $220 a quarter, 4 adults.
Anonymous
05/12/2023 09:59
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:NP, Fairfax County, and I am wondering if we have a hidden water leak. Just paid $336 for 24,000 gallons of water use, which seems incredibly high. Lots of showers, dishes, laundry, but we don't water our yard.
We pay separately for trash (American, included in HOA fee). A few years we moved from Fairfax City, where the city handled trash collection, and I would move back in a heartbeat if interest rates were lower. Not a fan of the county.
Is that 24,000 gallons in a month? Because yeah, that's a lot of water.
Even if that's in a quarter that's a lot! Our average for a family of 4 in Fairfax county is 9k gallons of use a quarter! I would definitely look for leaks.
We hit 31,000 in a quarter before getting a smart(er) sprinkler controller. But then we've had 24,000 and 25,000 quarters as our two highest after that. But that's including watering the yard. So if they're not doing that's awfully high for a quarter and absurd for a month.
WOw, I had no idea watering the yard used that much water--no wonder there are environmental controls. We have a 1/4 acre in Nova and I never water my yard--maybe a drip hose in the vegetable garden on really dry times that happen a handful of times a summer. It rains so much here, watering seems superfluous.
Well 15,000 and 18,000 have been our lowest quarters so we were never in the 9,000 gallon range. I wonder why - toddler at home so lots of laundry?
I don't know. Our 9k average usage is with two teens that shower a lot (thankfully!) but they are pretty quick about it. They also each do their own laundry so we seem to always have laundry going. We do have a water efficient front loading washer, a water efficient dishwasher and low flow toilets ---but nothing out of the norm on the water saving front--these are fairly standard now. Our bills say we're about average for usage--slightly on the lower end of the range. Maybe you have a running toilet or a small leak somewhere? Or just less water efficient appliances?
Hmmmm. I just checked and Arlington says the average household water consumption is 57,000 gallons a year or 14,250 a quarter. But 60% of Arlington households are multifamily and the average household size is 2.1 people. That makes me feel a little better but I've been thinking about getting one of those water usage sensors/meters that you instal on your inflow line and then it catches leaks, etc.
Oops--I was looking at our own 25 month average not our town's average and saw our range was 8k-11k a quarter. So not surprising, we're in our own average range--though it's nice to see we're trending lower. I don't know what the average for Fairfax is.
Anonymous
05/12/2023 09:01
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:I'm the Fairfax PP. There is a very small number of homes where the county provides trash service, I think mostly in Fairfax City. Everyone else pays a private service. We use Republic, and they've been fine. American is the other common one.
Town of Vienna provides trash service, too. Of course, you pay taxes to Town of Vienna in addition to Fairfax County.
Arlingtonian703
05/12/2023 08:43
Subject: Water bill NOVA
Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonian703 wrote:Anonymous wrote:NP, Fairfax County, and I am wondering if we have a hidden water leak. Just paid $336 for 24,000 gallons of water use, which seems incredibly high. Lots of showers, dishes, laundry, but we don't water our yard.
We pay separately for trash (American, included in HOA fee). A few years we moved from Fairfax City, where the city handled trash collection, and I would move back in a heartbeat if interest rates were lower. Not a fan of the county.
Is that 24,000 gallons in a month? Because yeah, that's a lot of water.
Even if that's in a quarter that's a lot! Our average for a family of 4 in Fairfax county is 9k gallons of use a quarter! I would definitely look for leaks.
We hit 31,000 in a quarter before getting a smart(er) sprinkler controller. But then we've had 24,000 and 25,000 quarters as our two highest after that. But that's including watering the yard. So if they're not doing that's awfully high for a quarter and absurd for a month.
WOw, I had no idea watering the yard used that much water--no wonder there are environmental controls. We have a 1/4 acre in Nova and I never water my yard--maybe a drip hose in the vegetable garden on really dry times that happen a handful of times a summer. It rains so much here, watering seems superfluous.
Well 15,000 and 18,000 have been our lowest quarters so we were never in the 9,000 gallon range. I wonder why - toddler at home so lots of laundry?
I don't know. Our 9k average usage is with two teens that shower a lot (thankfully!) but they are pretty quick about it. They also each do their own laundry so we seem to always have laundry going. We do have a water efficient front loading washer, a water efficient dishwasher and low flow toilets ---but nothing out of the norm on the water saving front--these are fairly standard now. Our bills say we're about average for usage--slightly on the lower end of the range. Maybe you have a running toilet or a small leak somewhere? Or just less water efficient appliances?
Hmmmm. I just checked and Arlington says the average household water consumption is 57,000 gallons a year or 14,250 a quarter. But 60% of Arlington households are multifamily and the average household size is 2.1 people. That makes me feel a little better but I've been thinking about getting one of those water usage sensors/meters that you instal on your inflow line and then it catches leaks, etc.