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I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 8th, 2020, 12:02 pm
by schreibdave
I'm sitting in my home office and a County Water Dept van pulls up. The guy gets out with a clipboard. He looks at the clipboard and then he looks at my lawn. Then back to the clipboard. Then he looks at my neighbor's lawns. Mind you we are in a historic drought here. My lawn is an emerald green. Surrounding lawns are the color of coffee with too much cream.

I greet him at the front door and he says "they sent me out here to check for a leak because we noticed that your water usage is very high. But when I pulled up and saw your lawn I knew there wasn't a leak." He said my usage last quarter was 12,000 gallons and this quarter it was 48,000 gallons. I'm surprised it's only quadrupled.

We get most of our water from Lake Ontario which has been OVER full the last several years. A big problem up there is that people with lake front property are getting swamped including the main streets of a few towns. So I figure that putting all that water on my lawn is my civic duty. They should pay me instead of me paying them. Oh well.

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 8th, 2020, 12:19 pm
by andy10917
Dave, the same thing happened to me years ago.

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 8th, 2020, 12:46 pm
by schreibdave
I just opened the mail and they also sent me a letter. Can't wait to get the bill.

I joked with the guy that "I had NO IDEA where all that water was going and how there must be some mistake." He chuckled and walked away.

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 8th, 2020, 3:12 pm
by PSU4ME
That’s a good bit of usage! They are actively fining people in our area if they are not following rules. I get a slow down every time the water department drives by. I wave :)

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 8th, 2020, 3:24 pm
by ken-n-nancy
schreibdave wrote:
July 8th, 2020, 12:02 pm
... Surrounding lawns are the color of coffee with too much cream.
Great description!

Thanks for sharing the story!

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 8th, 2020, 5:47 pm
by MorpheusPA
schreibdave wrote:
July 8th, 2020, 12:02 pm
... Surrounding lawns are the color of coffee with too much cream.
Yellow Ochre. :-) Well, depending on the company and what earth deposit they get it from. Liquitex yellow ochre, anyway.

'Round here, it's because somebody has to flush the toilet 38 times. I don't water the lawn. Garden, yes. Lawn, no.

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 8th, 2020, 8:38 pm
by Wally
schreibdave wrote:
July 8th, 2020, 12:02 pm
I'm sitting in my home office and a County Water Dept van pulls up. The guy gets out with a clipboard. He looks at the clipboard and then he looks at my lawn. Then back to the clipboard. Then he looks at my neighbor's lawns. Mind you we are in a historic drought here. My lawn is an emerald green. Surrounding lawns are the color of coffee with too much cream.

I greet him at the front door and he says "they sent me out here to check for a leak because we noticed that your water usage is very high. But when I pulled up and saw your lawn I knew there wasn't a leak." He said my usage last quarter was 12,000 gallons and this quarter it was 48,000 gallons. I'm surprised it's only quadrupled.

We get most of our water from Lake Ontario which has been OVER full the last several years. A big problem up there is that people with lake front property are getting swamped including the main streets of a few towns. So I figure that putting all that water on my lawn is my civic duty. They should pay me instead of me paying them. Oh well.
How much would you guess all the gallons end up costing you?

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 8th, 2020, 11:55 pm
by bpgreen
I was cleaning some brewing equipment one day last month and set the hose by a plum tree while dumping things out etc. I forgot and left it running overnight.

To make things worse, even though it was June, it rained off and on that night and the next day, so water was running off my lawn.

My water bill came today. I usually only have to pay the base charges. I was pretty sure I was going to have to pay an overage this month after letting the house run all night. I just wasn't sure how bad it was going to hurt.

I owed an extra two fifty.

I love my native grasses. And my ability to look at dormant patches and hope they die so I can dormant seed with more natives in the fall.

The overage was $2.50, not $250.

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: July 9th, 2020, 6:04 am
by schreibdave
"How much would you guess all the gallons end up costing you?"

I don't know. I will ask my wife to pull out an old bill and see if I can figure it out. But my bet is a couple hundred dollars more than a low usage quarter. Given that this is my hobby, that's fine with me. If I were a golfer I could spend that much in a weekend.

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: August 4th, 2020, 7:14 pm
by schreibdave
I got my bill.

$275 for the quarter ending 7/31. I used 56,000 gallons in total. Same quarter last year (prior to doing a 3 side renovation) was 18,000. This was my first season with new kbg on 3/4 of the lawn and my first year in this house with an irrigation system. We had a drought and lots of heat. I don't regret spending the $.

This fall I will be renovating 4000 sq ft in the back so I will use quite a bit of water but since the temps will be cooler and we should get more rain, I shouldnt need too much water on the established sections.

And remember, we do NOT have any sort of watering restrictions. 70% of our water comes from Lake Ontario which is over full.

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: August 7th, 2020, 8:20 pm
by Runnin Tony
schreibdave wrote:
August 4th, 2020, 7:14 pm
I got my bill.

$275 for the quarter ending 7/31. I used 56,000 gallons in total. Same quarter last year (prior to doing a 3 side renovation) was 18,000. This was my first season with new kbg on 3/4 of the lawn and my first year in this house with an irrigation system. We had a drought and lots of heat. I don't regret spending the $.

This fall I will be renovating 4000 sq ft in the back so I will use quite a bit of water but since the temps will be cooler and we should get more rain, I shouldnt need too much water on the established sections.

And remember, we do NOT have any sort of watering restrictions. 70% of our water comes from Lake Ontario which is over full.
This puts my water bill in perspective. 6,000 gallons used this month ~$70. If the average held for the quarter, $210 for 18,000 gallons. I can't imagine my bill if I used 56,000 gallons. Our county water agency is a rip off...

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: August 7th, 2020, 10:17 pm
by schreibdave
Yea, and the rate goes up the more you use.

Re: I got a visit from the County Water Department

Posted: August 11th, 2020, 5:03 pm
by BIGDADDY13
I live with a well and a pool . Does not give me much discretionary water to spend on the lawn, but I do what I can.