Because KC Water modifies the wastewater charge calculation to accommodate for different seasonal usage, water bills may fluctuate each winter.
There could be a number of reasons for this, including increased water usage during the holiday season. Another cause could be that the January-April Wastewater Volume Charge is based on the actual volume of water utilized during the billing period. The Wastewater Volume Charge appears on invoices from May to December and is based on the monthly average of water consumed the previous winter (JanuaryApril).
To account for customers’ water use during the spring, summer, and fall, we calculate the Wastewater Volume Charge in two ways. We understand that not all of the water consumed during those months ends up in the sewer system and needs to be treated. Some of it is used to irrigate lawns and participate in other outdoor activities.
We don’t collect data on wastewater as it leaves your house. However, because the majority of the clean tap water you use ends up in drains and toilets, we calculate the wastewater treatment charge based on the amount of clean water you use as determined by your water meter. KC Water, like many other utilities in the United States, recognizes that some of the water you use throughout the spring and summer months is for outside activities such as watering the lawn and gardening, and does not enter the sewer system for treatment. So, on your May through December invoices, we average your water usage throughout the winter months, when water usage is normally low, and utilize that as the volume fee for wastewater.
Your Wastewater Volume Charge is calculated based on your actual water usage in each of the months covered by those invoices from January to April.
We take the average of the water volume on those four invoices for the rest of the year to determine your baseline Wastewater Volume Charge. Your Wastewater Volume Charge will be the smaller of two sums on your May-December bills: either the benchmark winter average or your actual water usage in a given month.
Because it covers water used during the holidays, when more dishes and washing are done, the January bill may indicate the highest usage during the winter period.
The Wastewater Service Charge ($23.94 per month) is a monthly fee that helps to defray some of the costs of delivering various wastewater services. Whether or not wastewater is discharged to the city sewer during the billing period is irrelevant.
The City Council establishes KC Water’s prices through ordinances. Most of the nation’s almost 50,000 water companies follow a common rate-setting methodology, which KC Water recommends to the Council. The approach is based on the costs of constructing, maintaining, and operating water and wastewater systems.
What is the distinction between wastewater and water?
Wastewater is essentially all of the used water that runs into the sewer from your home. Whether the water was used for bathing, washing, industrial, sanitation, or other purposes, it all drains into the sewer collection system through your internal drains.
What is the definition of wastewater?
Wastewater is repurposed into drinking water. Human waste, food scraps, oils, soaps, and chemicals are among the items included. Water from sinks, showers, baths, toilets, washing machines, and dishwashers are all included in this. Businesses and industry also add to the amount of contaminated water that needs to be cleaned.
How is wastewater computed in the United Kingdom?
You would normally pay the ordinary non-household filthy sewerage charges if you used less than 50 Ml of water per year (250 Ml in Wales). These are subject to the price caps that we establish.
Metered customers
A water meter is installed on almost every non-household customer, and it is used to estimate the amount of filthy sewage created. If you have a water meter, your filthy sewerage charges are calculated using the following formula:
- a rate of change in volume that is multiplied by
- the amount of water utilized, adjusted to account for water that does not flow back into the sewers
Most businesses also levy a recurring fee. The amount you’ll be charged is determined by the size of your water meter.
Non-home metered volumetric rates are usually the same as metered household volumetric rates.
The non-household sewerage standing rates charged by Anglian Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, and Wessex Water are greater than the national average. This is because the sewerage standing charge includes the costs of both surface water and roadway drainage. Dwr Cymru’s non-household sewerage standing charges are considerably higher than normal since they include a highway drainage levy.
Unmetered customers
Unmetered non-home customers are charged the same amount for filthy sewerage as unmetered household customers. If you don’t have a meter, you’ll most likely have to pay:
- a set fee that includes all customer-related supply costs
- a charge based on the property’s rateable value
The rates for unmetered users are based on the rateable value of the property as determined by the 1973 Valuation Act. The Valuation Office Agency assigns a rateable value to all non-households in England and Wales. A professional estimate of a property’s annual rental worth on a given date is known as the rateable value. Every five years, the figures are updated.
KCMO, why is my water bill so high?
There are a number of reasons why your water bill is greater than it was at the same time last year. Here are four of the most typical reasons for rising water bills.
The amount of water you used was higher.
A change in how you use water is the most prevalent reason of increased water use.
- Have you increased the amount of water you use outside?
- Have you ever had to refill a swimming pool?
- Have you had any house visitors or has the number of occupants changed?
- It’s possible that you have a leak on your property.
The toilet is flushing. The shower is dripping. The sink has a leak. These seemingly insignificant volumes of water build up quickly.
KC Water and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have provided the following advice:
- Check for leaks with your water meter.
- Check to see whether there is any water inside or outside the house or structure.
- Find your meter. Your meter could be on the interior or exterior of your home.
- Check your meter if you haven’t used it in at least two hours. If your meter has a triangle on the dial, the triangle will move if water is flowing through it. If the meter does not have a triangle-shaped dial, look at the digital read. To see the read, you may need to shine a spotlight on the digital dial.
Is sewage the same as wastewater?
Domestic sewage and wastewater collection and treatment are critical for public health and clean water. It is one of the most important variables contributing to the high level of health in the United States. Sewers collect sewage and wastewater from households, companies, and industries and transport it to wastewater treatment facilities where it is treated before being discharged into bodies of water or land, or recycled.
What are the different types of wastewater sources?
Wastewater is ‘used water’ that comes from any of the following sources:
- Activities related to agriculture.
- Storm water is surface runoff.
- Any sewer infiltration or overflow.
- Effluent from aquaculture.
What is the purpose of wastewater treatment?
Humans and the ecosystem are both poisoned by wastewater. Wastewater treatment facilities aid in the purification of water and the eradication of circumstances such as those currently occurring in developing countries. Unsafe drinking water causes 1.7 million deaths per year, with over 90% of those deaths occurring in underdeveloped nations. 2 Several water-borne diseases, including as cholera and schistosomiasis, are still common in many underdeveloped countries, where only a small percentage (less than 5%) of home and municipal wastewater is treated before being released into the environment3.
Wastewater treatment also helps to safeguard the environment. Fresh water is required for fish and aquatic life. They are unable to survive when their water environment is contaminated with effluent. Excessive levels of chemicals, such as nitrogen and phosphates, enter streams, rivers, and huge bodies of water, causing excessive plant growth and the release of poisons into the water. This results in oxygen depletion and the formation of dead zones, which are places where fish and other aquatic life are unable to survive.
What’s the difference between treating water and treating wastewater?
Because of the water quality coming in, Water Treatment Plants (WTP) are typically smaller operations than Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP). Water is drawn from a nearby river, lake, or well via WTPs. In comparison to sewage, this water is often clean. and only require some washing and disinfecting.
What’s the deal with my sewer charges being so high?
Water and sewer are similar to a two-way toll bridge in that they cost us money to use both ways. It costs money to convert lake, river, or ground water into safe drinking water. Another cost is cleaning the waste water before returning it to the environment.
Customers are occasionally astonished to learn that their sewer charge is equal to, or even greater than, their water bill. How is it possible? After all, water is clean, pure, and healthful to drink. Sewage is what waste water is.
In fact, it is not uncommon for a sewage charge to be larger than the matching water bill across the country. The price of purifying waste water to required levels have risen dramatically as environmental rules have become more strict over the last few decades.
The size of a customer’s water and sewer bills is determined by the method used by individual water and waste water providers to calculate their bills. We’ll talk about the sewer side of things. The Boothbay Harbor Sewer District bills consumers quarterly for service based on the volume of metered drinking water, with some customers receiving a flat quarterly unmetered cost.
For a variety of reasons, sewer prices are higher than water costs. The main cause is that the water distribution and waste water collecting systems are not the same. Pressurized pipelines transport drinking water. It has the ability to go both up and downhill. This means that water pipelines don’t have to be built at grade, may follow the landscape, and are just 5 to 6 feet deep on average. Sewer lines must be made to grade with a specified slope because most waste water flows by gravity. Sewer lines must sometimes be installed through hills deep beneath the ground and well into hard rock in rolling terrain. The most expensive element of constructing a pipeline is trench excavation, especially in rock. The higher the expense of building, the deeper the pipe.
Another cost factor is the location of the two types of pipelines. Because sewers rely on gravity for flow, they must be constructed in such a way that the grade can be maintained, or pump stations must be installed to lift the wastewater so that it can flow by gravity once more. To keep the wastewater moving to our plant, the District maintains 19 pump stations. In addition, right-of-way for pipelines and pump stations may need to be purchased and removed, increasing overall expenses.
Costs are also influenced by the geographical extent of drinking water distribution and waste water collecting systems. Ordinarily, and due to fire protection standards, a town will provide public water to a greater number of its inhabitants than it will provide sewer service. Septic tanks, rather than sewers, are used by many water consumers in outlying locations. Individual customers will pay less because the water provider has a wider customer base to sustain its operating expenditures.
Differences in the treatment of drinking water and waste water are also factors to consider.
We’ll talk about the sewer system.
The complexity of waste water treatment has skyrocketed in recent years. Waste water treatment (if it was given at all) at the turn of the century consisted of screening out the really huge objects and then dumping the rest to a receiving water. After fifty years, settling tanks were invented to remove tiny solids. However, by today’s standards, the completed product was still extremely contaminated. Treatment has grown into sophisticated biological systems for eliminating organic contaminants, complicated filters, and current disinfection procedures since 1972 and during the last few of decades. The water discharged by the treatment facility is often cleaner than the receiving stream for drinking water. Advanced systems are typically more expensive to install and operate, raising the total cost of wastewater treatment. As a result, sewage costs are more expensive than water bills.