Why or why city water

**Nana2two** · 07-08-2009, 03:31 PM

Our city is putting a new water and system in the other one 40 years old the city is has only 2200 people the project will be 5 million. Hubby went to pay the water bill and said sorry it was a couple days late, she said not to worry about starting next month everyones waterbill will increase by $25 dollars. What the heck. I didnt ask for the new water tower infact mojority of the town voted against it.

**Contrary Housewife** · 07-08-2009, 04:47 PM

Yeah, they know they can raise rates and nobody can do anything.

We just had an electricity rate increase to pay for a new power plant that is behind schedule and way over budget, and the governor is about to sign a new law letting them charge us even more for "energy efficient" upgrades -- IE: using less power at a higher rate. And they're going to tack on a fee so everyone can absorb the cost of the "free" digital thermostats they gave out last year.

**frugalwarrior** · 07-08-2009, 07:32 PM

I love my well. We have a reverse osmosis system for drinking and a filtration for laundry. Outside is unfiltered. They can't raise my rates but I still have to pay sewer. I am so grateful for not having to shut down for water shortages and maintainence.
What I hate about my well is hauling endless salt from sams club or paying for my own equipment,and having to pay to exchange my iron filter once a year. The day our pump broke down was not pleasant or cheap. If we lose power,we lose water (incl. toilets).
My electirc just hiked $45.00 per month too. Just losing ground. Ya know.

**NikoSan999** · 07-08-2009, 08:11 PM

I'm sorry, I posted a new thread on this on another part of the forum. Guess it belongs here.
Does anyone have/use an old fashioned water hand pump? I know alot of people who considered putting them in before y2k. I remember they were hard to find. Possibly because alot of people were actually buying them and installing. I don't think any of the people I know did. One woman would have but her husband couldn't find one and had looked all over.
We had one when I was growing up and I vaguely remember sometimes (?) you had to have water to prime it.
Thinking that it might not be a bad thing to have along with survival stockpile. Don't need electric as with a well. No one can turn it off on you. No one can raise the rates. Any thoughts on this? Just curious.

**McD** · 07-08-2009, 08:14 PM

I can't explain why a lot of water companies do the things they do.

All of the suburbs here were offered the ability to purchase all their water thru the Des Moines WaterWorks at a set rate. For the cities that opted to do that, rates are still reasonable. Some of the smaller suburbs opted not too, instead building their own treatment plant and all that, the rates in those towns are as much as 7$ per thousand gallons!

**Sassyclass** · 07-08-2009, 09:28 PM

Exactly why I prefer living in the country on my own septic and well. If you ask me 40 years isn't very old for a system. Sounds like they are getting a kickback from the feds for using a grant?

Cat

**McD** · 07-08-2009, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by Sassyclass

Exactly why I prefer living in the country on my own septic and well. If you ask me 40 years isn't very old for a system. Sounds like they are getting a kickback from the feds for using a grant?

Cat

You would be very very suprised at how poorly some of the materials used 40 years ago are holding up. For example, water mains in our suburbs used to be done mainly with metal piping, however, the metal that used to be heralded as the best type to use for that are now corroding quickly due to various changes in climate, flood levels, soil content etc.

Not sure how the 'kickback' would work, but I know for our water utility, we received stimulus money to upgrade our meters that are do not have an automatic meter reader installed and old (old being any meter produced prior to 1990). We get no 'kickback' as we have to repay the stimulus money, other than the interest rate is significantly lower than what it would be if we had to finance it any other way. The savings is significant for our utility and will help us save money for years to come due to the upgrades. Maybe I am interpretting your use of 'kickback' incorrectly?

**frugalwarrior** · 07-08-2009, 10:00 PM

Not thinking I want to stand out in the winter and hand pump anything at ten below or in a winter storm. I saw windmill pumps though. or did you mean in the house??

**frugalfranny** · 07-09-2009, 12:41 AM

From what I have gathered the utilities are killing everyone.....everywhere....not sure what one can do though.

They want to raise our sewer bill by $12 a mo and the gas and elec goes up every year......if not twice a year.

**Luv2BeFrugal** · 07-09-2009, 01:05 AM

Gas and electric have both gone up here in the last 6 months... I like it here for the "flat rate" water...one set fee, use however much water you want. Although the standard bill for a home is $75-$85/month (I think it's based on square footage???).

**NikoSan999** · 07-09-2009, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior

Not thinking I want to stand out in the winter and hand pump anything at ten below or in a winter storm. I saw windmill pumps though. or did you mean in the house??

No, I wouldn't want to be outside in freezing weather pumping either. Understand totally. And it wouldn't be practical for just everyday use. It was just after reading the above posts I remembered the hand pump we had and thought if electric did go out or it was super controlled you would still have water as it dosen't need electric whatsoever. I don't know about freezing up tho.
But no wouldn't be outside freezing to hand pump. Guess more as an emergency measure.

**Grainlady** · 07-09-2009, 10:42 AM

A good lesson on unintended consequences and typical government run services. You'd have thought they would have set aside a percentage of the water charges for all those years expecting to need it in the future for improvements, rather than gouging everyone AFTER the fact!

Three years ago, when we first moved into our new home, we were having a drought and the city restricted water use and they stopped installation of private wells and restricted use of private wells (afterall, all our water comes from the same water source whether private or municipal). So putting in a private well wasn't an option.

We invested a good deal of money and installed water barrels with a 1,000 gallon storage capacity to use for watering our new yard, landscaping and garden. We redesigned our landscaping using Xeriscape methods and native plants that require less water, and fewer plants, so the only grass we have is a postage-size bit in the front yard and a mandated 10-foot stip in the back yard where the underground utilities are buried; and spent a ton of $ on tons of landscape rock and concrete walkways and additional parking to eliminate grass on the side yards.

So we did all the right things to conserve water.... Taking short showers every other day, rather than EVERY day, and sponge baths the days we didn't shower. Doing clean-up and dishes after a meal in only 1-gallon of SAVED water (cold water in the line caught in a bucket or jug while waiting for the water to get hot for a shower) and only running the dishwasher or doing a load of laundry with full loads....blah, blah, blah.

So what was the reward for everyone in town saving water? The city had less revenue (money coming in) due to forced conservation. They fixed THAT, they figured out a way to charge us MORE for using less water. So now if we even THINK of turning on a faucet, it's going to cost us more than our base minimum amount because they set the minimum amount so low. Before, we never used the minimum amount unless we watered the yard in the summer.

**Missourimom** · 07-09-2009, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by frugalfranny

They want to raise our sewer bill by $12 a mo .

This is who I have a major problem with. Our sewer bill is $40.00 a month! :gaah::crazy1:

**craftypam** · 07-09-2009, 07:28 PM

We are getting a fixed charge on our water bill. They did it for 2 months with different prices and now 1 month off and then I think it is going to be a fixed rate of $21.77. Our water and sewer rates are going down a little, but not enough to make up for this charge; of course.

**SixxOfDiamonds** · 07-10-2009, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by NikoSan999

No, I wouldn't want to be outside in freezing weather pumping either. Understand totally. And it wouldn't be practical for just everyday use. It was just after reading the above posts I remembered the hand pump we had and thought if electric did go out or it was super controlled you would still have water as it dosen't need electric whatsoever. I don't know about freezing up tho.
But no wouldn't be outside freezing to hand pump. Guess more as an emergency measure.

I went to HS with people who had hand-pump water. And yes, you had to prime it sometimes with more water. True, I'm only 22 years old. I knew people in HS who grew up without electricity, too. We lived in the middle of nowhere, what can I say?

But most of the hand pumps were inside mounted on the side of the sink. They worked pretty easy if you ask me. Even when I was younger I remember going to our camp and hand pumping water. It wasn't a big deal. Never had an issue with freezing pipes or anything. The only downside was that to get warm water, you had to let it sit to room temperature or you had to boil it to wash dishes. I don't miss that wait at all.