Water Sewer Bills

I wanted to raise the subject of the NJ Amer Water Sewer bills again.

Hope you don%26#39;t mind but I copied the info here from previous posts:

Frank3 - $87.92.

1312Wesley - $300

Here is my breakdown:

Water 65

Sewer 83

Other 4

Total 152

I have a 4 BR 2.5 BA unit (plus lower shower) with no sprinkler running on that meter.

The bills are a real scam they way they charge this amount all year.

How does that compare?

Water Sewer Bills

826,

Are you saying that you pay this same amount all year?? I just went back and looked at my tax records for 2005 and found that the bills varied by the time of the year.

Here%26#39;s what my 2005 months look like:

APRIL $45.37

MAY $28.41

JUNE $28.41

JULY $38.95

AUG $72.77

SEPT $50.00

OCT $56.13

NOV $28.41

DEC $22.87

Water Sewer Bills

This is what I%26#39;m dealing with:

2005 costs

Jan 31.04

Feb 25.49

Mar 31.04

Apr 31.04

May 42.13

Jun 58.75 Water 34 Sewer 24

Jul 75.40 Water 47 Sewer 28

Aug 108.67 Water 73 Sewer 35

Sep 86.50

Oct 26.48

Nov 25.49

Dec 25.48

2006 costs - sewer charges now estimated based on a ';Pocket'; of usage last summer - and applied all year!

Jan 81.52 Water 12 Sewer 69 !!?? off season usage!

Feb 81.52 Water 12 Sewer 69 !!??

Mar 87.07 Water 17 Sewer 70 !!??

Apr 92.61 Water 21 Sewer 71 !!??

May 94.19 Water 21 Sewer 71 !!??

Jun 135.23 Water 52 Sewer 80

Jul 157.68 Water 69 Sewer 85

Aug 152.05 Water 65 Sewer 83

Since the property was new in 2004, the ';pocket'; was low, which accounted for the lower 2005 charges. That%26#39;s what they tell me, but all of this seems ridiculous. $900 per year for sewer charges is a bit much!

p.s. Frank3,

You might be in for a surprise on your bills starting in January....

You folks have me curious. I am out of town on business, but will be taking a look at my water and sewer bill. I know when I was at 26th and Asbury I was charged at a commercial rate. I did not notice it to after I sold it.

826 is yours a 3 bedroom or 4 and how many baths. I think I may need to do something like not water the lawn.

826,

Our place is not brand new (built in 2001) so I am assuming that the rates were based on the previous history of the building...I did look last night and on my Aug bill, the sewer charges were around 48 and the water 45.

1312:

That%26#39;s interesting. Maybe we can get a commercial rate!

Mine is a 4 BR 2.5 Baths plus lower level shower. The sprinkler is not on this meter. It%26#39;s on a totally separate meter.

Frank3:

That%26#39;s good news. If that%26#39;s the case, I doubt that your rates will increase in January.

Frank3 - I%26#39;m wondering if your sewer charges are around $48 for each month of 2006.

I went back and looked at some of my bills from 2006 and it looks like it goes from around $35 in the winter to $48 in the summer. How do they come up with these numbers??? Is it based on size of the building (bedrooms, bathrooms, etc) or is there any way to measure this?? Sounds like the kind of thing that would be easy to challenge based on use of the building etc. Do they charge the same thing to a family that lives 12 months in OC and an owner who may just use it on weekends and rents in the summer? If that%26#39;s the way it%26#39;s used, that doesn%26#39;t seem too fair.

Frankly, until 826 asked about this, I never had thought about or even noticed what the sewer portion of the bill was or how they came about that figure.

Frank and 826

Thanks for your info. I think my grass is going to get ALOT less water next year.

Jan 69.87Water 12.37 Sewer 57.48

Feb 64.32 Water 8.01 Sewer 56.31

Mar 69.87 Water 12.37 Sewer 57.48

Apr 34.15 Water 21 Sewer 63.30

May 115.58 Water 47.22 Sewer 66.81

Spinkler turned on.

Jun 296.83 Water 186.65 Sewer 104.09

Jul 251.99 Water 151.79 Sewer 94.78

Aug 296.83Water 186.65 Sewer 104.99

I was under the assumption that I was using most of the water because of my tenants, but it does not seem that way. I was talking to another fellow owner today and he told me he noticed the same thing a few years ago and he does not use the spinkler. I had turned mine off last weekend, but I am sure the upstairs folks will want the sprinklers on next year. I will just have the timer set for less time.

While I was down there today I went under all the sinks and adjusted the shutoff valves to slow down the water flow. Something I should have done 2 summers ago. I found it interesting that every valve was cranked all the way open. I closed them down enough to restrict some of the water flow, but still keep it coming out at a reasonable pressure. I hate to sound cheap but I figure I might as well conserve some water and save a few pennies.

Okay...here%26#39;s my big question. We live and or have houses in a BEACH COMMUNITY. Why the heck do the stupid builders put in grass landscaping?????

When we had our house in Vegas, the builder landscaped the front but the back was left up to the owner. For the base price, you got ';desert landscaping'; with mostly rocks a couple of trees and a few plants. It came with a drip irrigation system which is similar to a sprinkler system but with only a small line to each plant and and the plants were watered directly for a few minutes each time the cycle went on. We paid a landscaper to do the same in the back yard and had that tied into the drip system too. Seemed to me to be a lot smarter to go with the flow and not try and mess with Mother Nature and have no lawn care expenses or excess watering bills!

Why is this not done more in OC?? Seems to me that sod must be the cheap way out because when you are in a beach community where the soil is sand, why else bother? A lawn, the expense of watering the lawn and then the lawn care on top of it just seems silly to me. Even worse than the lawn and the sprinklers, how bout the builders that put in lawn and no sprinklers!!! Are the weekly tenets supposed to water???

The houses on our street that are beach landscaped always look nice...those with lawns are either costing the owners a bunch of money or are a lovely color brown during the summer months. In Vegas the Gov started mandating desert landscape as the water crisis grew...perhaps the same thing should happen in OC!

kind of bacteria