Following is a letter I composed and sent to all of our neighbors back in December 2008 that explains what my husband and I learned about how the charges to our Sunnyslope District water bill are determined.
If you are a Sunnyslope customer, I am sure you already know that the major portion of your water bill is for ‘sewer’. There is a way to lower your ‘sewer’ charge for each month for the coming year, and also lower the ‘rate’ that you are charged for water for the entire year. Please read on...
Carol Garnier Dutra
December 14, 2008
Dear Neighbor,
Last year, my husband Dick and I noticed that while our monthly Utility Service Bill from Sunnyslope County Water District is on the expensive side, the major portion of our water bill charge every month is for ‘sewer’.
We proceeded to find out how we could reduce the amount of money we were being charged for the ‘sewer’ portion of our water bill.
What we learned from our inquiry at the Sunnyslope County Water District’s office was that the Sunnyslope County Water District averages out our water usage, each and every single year, from the amount of water we use from January 15 to March 15 of that particular year!
This means that each homeowner’s monthly sewer charge on their monthly Utility Service Bill from Sunnyslope County Water District has a sewer charge that is not the same as their neighbors sewer charge, and this charge can vary from year to year depending on how much water is used for each household from January 15 to March 15..
Dick and I learned that by REDUCING our WATER USAGE during these TWO months, January 15, 2008 to March 15, 2008 we were able to reduce our total sewer charge for the following 12 months. For us that is a reduction of $60.00 a month for a grand saving for us of $720.00 for the entire water billing year, which will end after March 15, 2009. The water-billing year begins and ends on approximately March 15th each year. For some customers it will be a day or two later because it takes time for the water meter readers to get around to all of their customers homes to read the meters.
We base our savings by comparing what we paid for sewer on our Utility Service Bill for the previous year. The Utility Service Bill we will receive in May 2009 will contain our new sewer charge, which will be based on our water usage from January 15, 2009 to March 15, 2009.
When we installed a new water heater we chose one that has a 30 gallon water tank because it takes less energy and less water to heat up a 30 gallon tank, and we are not big consumers of water because we have a small family. We also have a blanket on our water heater to conserve energy by keeping the water in the tank hot, longer.
A 60 gallon water tank would take more energy and more water to maintain, and is not worth the extra cost for us.
We’ve replaced our water softener with a new energy conserving unit that takes less water, and less salt to do the water softening process. Old, less efficient water softeners can use a lot of water, and put more salt/sodium into the sewer system.
Good luck in lowering your Sunnyslope water bill!
Dick and Carol Dutra
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
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