Water, water everywhere...

My latest water bill was $94.28.

As I was reviewing it the other day, I started to wonder just how they came up with that figure. Obviously we (my family) used the water, but just what did they mean by "Allowance" and "Excess charges"?

Here's the scoop I got from the DPW...

Virtually every town in Massachusetts charges a minimum for water use. Falmouth charges $40 for 21 units every 6 months, which equates to 15,750 gallons (a unit is 100 cubic feet; a cubic foot is equal to 7.5 gallons). If you use more than 15,750 gallons, then you get charged more - the "excess charges" on the bill - but if you lose less, then, well, you're out of luck.

So every homeowner in Falmouth will pay a minimum of $80/year for their water use.

I was told that there are those who want to abolish the minimum because it encourages people to use their "allowance" of 15,750 gallons. While there may be some truth to this, I think it would be very difficult, if not impossible.

My wife and I and our three children do our share of laundry and dishes, but we have Energy Star appliances including a front-loading washer that uses about half the water of the typical top-loader. We don't wash our cars at home and rarely water our lawn. Because our house is new, we've low-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads, and no leaking faucets. I'm not quite sure how we could reduce our water use, but I'm open to suggestions.

Yet in spite of our water-conserving appliances and habits, we still had an "excess usage" (the "excess" being whatever we use over and above our "allowance" of 15,750 gallons) of 17,250 gallons. That's a lot of water.

And yet it's not. According to the town's web site, the Coonamessett Well, Fresh Pond Well, Mares Pond Well pump 2.1 million gallons of water a day. At the rate we use water, it would take us more than 63 YEARS to use the amount of water that these wells pump IN ONE DAY.

By the way, if you were wondering why the DPW doesn't measure water use in gallons, it's because all of the meters are in cubic feet. We could change them, but it would cost the taxpayers.

Doing the math is much cheaper.