Search Results for ""water bill""
“Dear PoPville,
I am reaching out to you because our water bill went up…a lot. Not too long ago we had a satellite responsive water regulator installed by dc water. Things were fine until February when our bill went up to $300 (normal bill around $100) and we were out of town 20 of those 28 days. Read More
“Dear PoPville,
I just got a water bill for over $1,200. We purchased a house in December 2021 and didn’t receive any water bills until yesterday. For the past year I have called DC water every month to figure out why we weren’t receiving bills and they kept telling me to wait for a bill in the mail. Read More
Photo by Miki Jourdan
“Dear PoPville,
When we moved into our last home we provided our landlord with all the information to transfer DC Water over to our new account. They never did that and told us not to worry about it (which we have in writing). We interpreted that as, we aren’t paying for water. We never received a bill from them so we assumed that was also their interpretation. Turns out their interpretation was the bill would just stay in their name and they would bill us. Fast forward 12 months and now they’re charging us $1,200 for 12 months of water bills. Read More
Photo by Rick Trinnes
“Dear PoPville,
I’m curious what other people in DC who live in one bedroom condos are paying for their water bill? My building uses Studebaker Submeter and we all have similar bills of 57.80 for one month of water. Other people in the building have had them come out to check their meters and its’ working fine. I live by myself, take one shower a day and one load of laundry a week. I don’t use the dishwasher. This just seems absurd to have such a high bill but was told DC is upgrading its water plant and all residents are taxed for it.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Pablo Raw Raw
From an email:
“PoPville’s post on our geysering DC Water bills, and the comments it garnered, helped convince ANC 4D a community Water Forum was needed to support productive discussion on the city’s increasing water challenges.
Hello, neighbors,
Strange and frightening charges are turning up on our water bills.
And, as the heavy rainstorms last summer proved, DC residents are experiencing more-frequent dangerous flooding in our homes and streets.
As DC careens into a new, wetter climate era, what do these alarming trends portend for us? And what can we do about them?
Ask your questions, and get answers at the ANC 4D Water Forum:
Tuesday, Oct. 24, 6:30-8:30 pm
Washington Latin Public Charter School
5200 2nd St NW (between Ingraham and Hamilton)
This will be a calm, respectful, yet candid engagement with DC Water and DOEE representatives aimed at getting the real story behind all the bill increases and the environmental challenges ahead. We will also hear how City Council is researching these issues and what it is considering to do in response.
Best regards,
Nancy E. Roth,
Commissioner, ANC 4D”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Pablo Raw
“Dear PoPville,
In early February, DC Water sent our 4-unit condo building in Shaw/Logan Circle a $15,611.19 water bill, claiming we used more than one million gallons of water. This is not humanly or scientifically possible. The bill itself even eludes to that, noting that the $15,611.19 charge is based on their estimate of our water use – because they’d discovered our building’s meter wasn’t working properly.
Our condo building quickly sent DC Water a formal response via email seeking answers – ranging from why DC Water didn’t notify us there was a problem with our building’s meter, to why 45-days is considered appropriate notice when requiring a building to supposedly pay for over a year’s worth of water usage, to what’s the protocol to set up a meeting with DC Water to discuss the matter and so on. We received an automatic reply from DC Water saying our letter was received, but there was no further correspondence from DC Water.
Receiving no response, we resent the email and once again received an automatic reply acknowledging receipt. This time, we wised up and also sent our formal response letter via certified mail to DC Water. Thanks to USPS, we knew that was also delivered and received by DC Water…. And you guessed it, no response. Read More
Photo by PoPville flickr user John Sonderman
Water bill spike due to busted pipes – Landlord / tenant responsibility?
“Long story short, the last water meter reading in the house I’m renting was in October 2014. The water pipes burst sometime after that, and they just finally read our meter again. It looks like there was a huge spike in the bill from there (around 70,000 gallons). A meter reader is going to come back out but assuming the reading is accurate:
Are the tenants responsible for a spike? Should we ask the landlady to cover it since it’s from a problem with the house?
It seems hard to assign clear responsibility for the water usage. Almost none of the current tenants were even living in the house when that happened.”
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Photo by PoPville flickr user wolfkann
“Dear PoPville,
I recently bought a house and live in it with one other person. What is an average water bill? I just got one that seemed really expensive. $120 for one month (One house, two people. We have high efficiency everything in terms of water.) Where I used to live, without all the high efficiency stuff, my water bill was about $100 for three months.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user caroline.angelo
“I am a first time homeowner in Petworth, so it is also the first time that I have been responsible for water bills. I have noticed that DC Water bills by the ccf, or hundred cubic feet, where one hundred cubic feet = 748 gallons.
3 out of the last four months my water use has been billed at 3 ccfs, although the actual use of water has varied between 1600 and 2200 gallons. Ccfs appear to be non-divisible.
It seems to me that billing by the ccf is a not-particularly-consumer-friendly way to bill for water. Essentially, anyone using between 1500 and 2244 gallons per month would be billed the same. This is the equivalent to phone companies selling airtime by-the-hour, rather than by the minute. Considering that water use is tracked to the gallon by automated water meters, what is the justification for using such rough units of billing (the ccf)?
Additionally, from a water conservation standpoint, if the assumption is that consumers will be motivated to conserve water by having their water bill reduced, in the current billing system the water bill will only be reduced if you pass distinct thresholds (like going below 1496 gallons, or 2 ccf) – there would be no “reward” for water conservation if your use doesn’t cross a ccf threshold.
Anyone know the history of this system?”
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Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC
“Hey neighbors. We just got a *ridiculous* water bill. It’s one of a series, actually. I think I need to look into it, but have realized that I have no idea what ‘normal’ water bills are in the area. Am looking to take an informal poll. To give you an idea, I live in a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom place with my boyfriend and our bill was $400 last month. Is that normal or nuts? HELP! Thanks.”
You can see all forum topics and add your own here. If you are having trouble uploading your question to the forum please try clearing your cache. If it still doesn’t work please email me at princeofpetworth(at)gmail
