I hate being an adult.
Why the berkeley would my sewer charges have doubled from the previous amount if my water usage was half that of the previous month?
How the berkeley does this budget billing E36 M3 work? Why do they apply the extra from the prior month to some current bills and not others?
I hate it. All of it.
Is it one where they estimate for a month or two, then come actually read the meter every once in a while to get you squared up? Just a guess here
Maybe? That sounds really stupid then because it's all different amounts every month.
We just pay $153/month and when we signed up they said we would settle up when they do their normal re-evaluation for budget, whether that be a bill to us, or refund.
I just don't understand where these numbers are coming from and what they're doing with the extra money paid.
Do you have an actual sewer meter? I'd be surprised if you do. Sewer usage should usually equal water usage, does the bill show gallons used for both water & sewer?
Just water. It's my understanding that sewer should be calculated from water, so if water is cut in half, i'd expect sewer to cut in half.
Not double.
I'll throw together a "map" of all bills and payments since we moved in this weekend. I'm completely lost. We still just pay the $153, but i don't want to get screwed during the "settle up" period.
Any major sewer work in the area lately? That usually causes a rise in the sewer bill to cover the costs.
Havent seen a utility truck other than U-Verse or Comcast since we moved.
I mean we're talking a $66 sewer charge. That seems really high.
More E36 M3?
What have you been eating? 
Yeah the water charge was just about $30. Something's afoot.
Swank Force One wrote: Havent seen a utility truck other than U-Verse or Comcast since we moved. I mean we're talking a $66 sewer charge. That seems really high.
Upgrade could be anywhere in the system they manage and they could then pass the costs onto the customers. Having gone through a major sewage upgrade here in Portland, the costs have increased quite a bit and none of the work was anywhere near our home.
Just a theory mind you....
So call them up and ask.
Yeah, I agree with Dr. Hess. FWIW I'm the water/sewer chairman in our podunk town, not that I know much about this stuff at all, but I can't think of a reason your sewer charges would be double your water charges based solely on gallons-used.
If for some reason the sewer rates had been raised for another reason, you'd see the sewer amount being consistently/proportionately higher than the water amount. Or if there were extra fees added onto the sewer portion, that should be listed as a separate line-item.
Dr. Hess wrote: So call them up and ask.
Sure that's the plan. Their customer service line wasn't open at 10pm on Friday night though. GRM Forums is open 24/7.
In reply to Swank Force One:
Are you on municipal water/sewer, or someplace like American-Indiana?
Sewer charges may be calculated as a base cost per housing unit plus an amount calculated on gallons of water used while water is billed on gallons only. If your water use is low it would cause the unbalanced billing.
Its Citizens energy. They are/were the gas co. And the municipal govt sold the public water utility to them a couple of years ago.
I honestly don't look at my bill, I'll dig one up when I get home and see what it says.
They'll be closed on Monday as well, so wait until Tuesday to call.
In the meantime make sure you don't have a toilet with a leaky flapper valve, or a dripping faucet somewhere in the house. It doesn't take much to make a big difference in a monthly bill, it happened to me a couple years ago.
I just got my water/ sewer bill. In my case the sewer charge is half the water charge. As every one said, call the appropriate department.
The budget plan works on an average of your usage. It levels out the payments so that you don't get hit with a huge bill in winter. On mine, due to reductions in cost I built up a sizeable equity. So this month my payment dropped $40. Nice. The power company averages it out every 3/4 months. So if you are new it might take a little while to work out.
Water/sewer rates out here are insane. We have no shortage of water but I've heard we process sewage 3-5 times before we send it back to the sound. Basically we make it cleaner than the water we drink from the fresh water system. I understand it.. I wouldn't want to hurt the wonderful salmon that are so tasty.. but man they sting.
For reference: our last water/sewer bill was $284 for 3 months.
Just got my bill. $18 for the water and $30 for the sewer.
moparman76_69 wrote: Just got my bill. $18 for the water and $30 for the sewer.
, that is dirt cheap. How many gallons of water was that?
Family of four here and we average 100 a month for water / sewer and it us always a 50/50 split of the bill based on water usage.
I just checked mine.
Water - $16.75
Sewer - $12.15
My usage this month was 2100 gallons. Its just me though. I believe irrigation is city water as well. But its shut off for the season.
At my folks house, the city water supply is a couple of muncipal wells. The irrigation water comes from a nearby reservoir (its really a big mud puddle) and is non potable. It is billed seperately from drinking water and is based on lot size, no matter if your lot is all asphalt or grass.
I just checked mine. $0 and $0. Gotta love being on a well with septic. When it is all working. 
You'll need to log in to post.
