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Domestic water pricing

(11 posts) (6 voices)

Started 3 years ago by JohnB
Latest reply from ghostgum

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JohnB
Member

I'm interested in prices charged by local authorities for potable water supply.
When increased charges are mentioned in the media they are usually just a scary percentage increase - better for sensationalism I guess.

For example, Midcoast Water here on the NSW coast charges us as follows:

Water Access Charge $31.00 per quarter.
Water Usage Charge $1.75 per kilolitre - up to 50 kilolitres per quarter.
Water usage Charge $1.95 per kilolitre - consumption over 50 kilolitres per quarter.

Is this high, low or average?

Posted Tuesday 28 Apr 2009 @ 11:35:07 am from IP #
Sunshine
Member

JohnB
I am in Brisbane City Council area, and my charges are as follows:
Water Access Charge $37.03 per quarter.
Water Usage Charge $1.52 per kilolitre - up to 255 kilolitres per year.
Water usage Charge $1.56 per kilolitre - consumption between 256-310 kilolitres per year.
Water usage Charge $2.05 per kilolitre - consumption over 310 kilolitres per year.

So per quarter:
Water Access Charge $37.03 per quarter.
Water Usage Charge $1.52 per kilolitre - up to 64 kilolitres per quarter.
Water usage Charge $1.56 per kilolitre - consumption between 64-77.5 kilolitres per quarter.
Water usage Charge $2.05 per kilolitre - consumption over 77.5 kilolitres per quarter.

We only use around 13-17kL per quarter, so water consumption costs around $20-$25 per quarter plus the Water Access Charge.

I'd call it average, not really significantly different to yours. You have cheaper Water Access Charge, but water slightly more expensive water.

Posted Tuesday 28 Apr 2009 @ 12:25:39 pm from IP #
petanque
Member

Isn

Posted Wednesday 29 Apr 2009 @ 12:36:10 am from IP #
JohnB
Member

Petanque,

That's kind of my point, the cheapness of water for all users is a big issue.

I started the thread in response to a news item implying that some residents from a major city were going to be 'slugged with an 80% increase in water prices', which sounds harsh.
It seems though, that the threatened higher price may be as low as $1.20 per kilolitre, which is nothing. I was just interested in what water currently costs people.

(When we moved here 10 years ago water was a fraction of the price it is now, roughly 50c per kilolitre. Of course, in the last 10 years Midcoast Water has built itself two new shiny buildings in Taree and Forster, as well as some actual useful infrastructure.)

What does water cost in Adelaide, for example?

Speaking of water quality??, I should have included the $90 per year for the inline carbon filter cartridge that we need to make our tap water drinkable, and that's just on a small 'drinking and kettle only' outlet beside the sink.

Rural use is certainly alarming, in fact I was surprised to hear in a recent radio discussion about rice production that 1kg of rice needs 1.2 - 1.5 kilolitres of water. The presenter put that into perspective though, by quoting ABARE figures that 1 kilo of beef production requires 16 kilolitres of water!!

That stops us vegies from feeling too guilty about having a swimming pool!

Posted Wednesday 29 Apr 2009 @ 2:51:46 am from IP #
ghostgum
Member

On my bill there are two components. One for water usage and one for water disposal (sewage). The water disposal charge is something like 0.9 (a seasonal factor) times water usage. So while the water usage charge is a little over $1 per kilolitre, the overall charge is about $2 per kilolitre when you include the water usage and disposal charges.

Posted Wednesday 29 Apr 2009 @ 3:44:22 am from IP #
norbert
Member

Western Water VIC anual supply charge is $ 155.02
Water cost(per 4 month) 0-53 KL $ 0.99
53-106 KL $ 1.32
+106 KL $ 2.64

Given that we're on stage 3a restrictions for quite some time the prices seem redicioulsly low and I believe do not reflect the scarcity of water.

Posted Wednesday 29 Apr 2009 @ 4:37:14 am from IP #
petanque
Member

I think water use figures need careful scrutiny.

Many parts of Australia that produce beef are not irrigated so the only water available is what falls from the sky.

Using natural rainfall has different environmental consequences than pumping large amounts of water from a river for irrigation.

I will suggest that the water industry has many groups involved in rent seeking behaviour.

Posted Wednesday 29 Apr 2009 @ 5:42:40 am from IP #
JohnB
Member

Good point Petanque - rainfall calculated over the area of a property and credited to the raising of a few beasts must push the water 'consumption' figure artificially high.

Norbert, your rates are interesting - most suppliers seem to have a price increase with larger consumption, but doubling at about 80 kilolitres per quarter! Of course, if hardly anyone uses their 106 per billing period then it's just a 'headline' charge rather than much of an incentive.

Ghostgum, I admit I hadn't thought about the disposal side - we're small rural with onsite disposal - but you get charged twice for your water!! I guess everyone where there is a sewer gets charged twice.
Does that mean that if you had low metered consumption, but used a lot of rainwater (assuming you get rain) that the disposal charge would still just be linked to the metered consumption? Or have the authorities blocked that loophole?

Posted Wednesday 29 Apr 2009 @ 11:21:42 pm from IP #
ghostgum
Member

If you use rainwater for flushing toilets and your washing machine, then you reduce your metered water usage, and hence reduce your disposal charge. It will be hard to close that loophole, because they can't meter your rainwater collection.

As far as I know, the water authority doesn't know whether we have rainwater tanks or not.

The seasonal disposal factor is supposed to take into account that more water is used on the garden during the summer. I suspect that this is averaged across the service area, rather than individual properties, but I don't know. In our case, our metered summer usage is higher because we stop using rainwater in the house, and keep it for watering the garden. An analysis of our metered usage would suggest that we are watering our garden lots during summer, and that our winter usage is quite low. If they determined our disposal factor based on winter usage, it would be wrong, but in our favour.

Yes, we do get rain down here in Victoria In recent years it's been about 2/3 of the long term average.

The water charges for my area are listed on
http://www.yarravalleywater.com.au/yvw/YourHome/YourAccount/AccountChargesExplained/_default.htm

Block, Litres used per day, Tariff (per kilolitre)
1, 0 - 440, $1.0192 per kilolitre
2, 440 - 880, $1.1957 per kilolitre
3, More than 880, $1.7666 per kilolitre

The residential sewage disposal charge is $1.3181 per kilolitre.
This is calculated as a factor between 0.8 and 0.9 of the water usage.

The fixed service charges for residential customers are:
Water Service Charge: $75.54 per year
Sewerage Service Charge: $184.54 per year

Posted Thursday 30 Apr 2009 @ 1:43:21 am from IP #
ghostgum
Member

Found the sewage disposal charge information for Yarra Valley Water.
http://www.yarravalleywater.com.au/yvw/YourHome/YourAccount/AccountChargesExplained/SeasonalFactorsSDC.htm

See the seasonal estimations below used to calculate the sewage disposal charge based on an average of all customers water usage history:
Winter 0.9
Spring 0.7
Summer 0.51
Autumn 0.69
Annual average 0.7

The bill shows the average value of the seasonal factor over the approximately 91 day billing period, so it varies depending on when the meter is read.

The seasonal factor is multiplied by 0.9, the water consumed and the tariff.
So the total charge for water (including usage and disposal charges) is
1.0192 + 0.7 * 0.8 * 1.3181 = $1.7573 per kilolitre

This is less than I thought, so it will now take me a bit longer to recover the cost of my water tanks and associated plumbing and pump. I estimate this will take another 70 years, unless the water price goes up dramatically.

Current plans are for the water price to increase by 50% over the next 4 years.

Posted Friday 1 May 2009 @ 5:42:37 am from IP #
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