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.

DC water comes from the Potomac River. The water level in the Potomac River drops when there is a drought. What will happen if the water level in the Potomac River drops below the intake pipes?

https://dcist.com/story/23/08/29/dc-preparing-backup-reservoirs-drought-continues/

Thank you for sharing that. Luckily, as the article states, we have two backups and aren't in any danger.

What happens after they open the back-ups and it still doesn't rain? They're worried about it, even if you aren't.

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+

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.

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax Water is billed quarterly and we average about 100 a month for a family of 5. The majority cost is for the sewer portion, not the water usage.

I rebuilt the toilet internals and replaced the stem valves in the tubs/showers to prevent running and leaking, and cut the bill by about 30%.

Everything in DC is a racket.

Huh, this is exactly what we pay in DC? I guess DC isn't that expensive then. My bad.

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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC water is an independent agency with its own board. It's not the DC government.

“Independent” should be in quotation marks. All members of the board are appointed by the mayor.

There are no independent agencies. Everyone ultimately answers, one way or another, to the mayor and the city council.

The 11-member DC Water board includes 6 directors appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Council, four from MD, and one from Fairfax County, VA. I have no idea how long their terms are. Source: https://www.dcwater.com/board-of-directors

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.

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.

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.

DC water comes from the Potomac River. The water level in the Potomac River drops when there is a drought. What will happen if the water level in the Potomac River drops below the intake pipes?

https://dcist.com/story/23/08/29/dc-preparing-backup-reservoirs-drought-continues/

Thank you for sharing that. Luckily, as the article states, we have two backups and aren't in any danger.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC water is an independent agency with its own board. It's not the DC government.

“Independent” should be in quotation marks. All members of the board are appointed by the mayor.

There are no independent agencies. Everyone ultimately answers, one way or another, to the mayor and the city council.

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.

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.

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.

DC water comes from the Potomac River. The water level in the Potomac River drops when there is a drought. What will happen if the water level in the Potomac River drops below the intake pipes?

https://dcist.com/story/23/08/29/dc-preparing-backup-reservoirs-drought-continues/