What Charges Does a Sewage Bill Include?
Decode your sewage bill. Understand the various elements that comprise your wastewater charges and how they contribute to the total.
A sewage bill represents charges for the essential service of collecting, treating, and disposing of wastewater from homes and businesses. It ensures used water from sinks, toilets, and showers is safely processed before being returned to the environment. This utility service is fundamental for public health and environmental protection, covering infrastructure and operational costs.
Core Components of Sewage Charges
Sewage bills typically include charges covering both fixed expenses for maintaining the wastewater system and variable costs based on volume processed. Fixed service fees, also known as base charges, are constant amounts charged regardless of wastewater discharged. These fees help utility providers cover administrative overhead, customer service, and ongoing maintenance of sewer infrastructure, such as pipes and treatment plants, even if no water is used.
Volume-based charges account for the quantity of wastewater a property discharges. These charges are directly tied to usage; higher water consumption leads to a higher sewage bill. Utilities often apply these charges per thousand gallons or per hundred cubic feet (CCF) of water, as most water entering a property eventually becomes wastewater. Some utilities also implement minimum charges to cover basic operational costs, ensuring a baseline payment even for very low usage.
Determining Your Sewage Usage
Since wastewater is not directly metered in homes, utilities estimate sewage volume for billing. The most common approach links sewage charges to incoming fresh water consumed, as measured by a water meter. This method assumes most water supplied to a property eventually discharges into the sewer system.
Another method, for residential customers, is the “winter average.” This approach calculates average water usage during winter months (e.g., December, January, February), when outdoor water use is minimal. The winter average prevents customers from being charged for water not entering the sewer system, such as water used for watering lawns or filling swimming pools. This average often becomes the maximum usage billed for the rest of the year, even if summer consumption is higher.
Some properties may be charged a flat rate for sewage services, regardless of usage. This fixed monthly or quarterly rate simplifies billing but does not reflect individual consumption. If direct metering or winter averages are not feasible, utilities may use estimated usage methods based on historical data or property characteristics to determine sewage volume.
Additional Fees and Surcharges
Beyond core service and usage charges, a sewage bill may include additional fees and surcharges that fund specific initiatives or cover regulatory compliance costs. Stormwater management fees are common, addressing the costs of managing rainwater runoff to prevent pollution and reduce flooding. These fees are often calculated based on a property’s impervious surfaces, such as rooftops and driveways, as these areas contribute significantly to runoff.
Infrastructure surcharges, also known as capital improvement fees, support the maintenance, repair, and upgrading of sewer system infrastructure. These funds are for replacing pipes, improving treatment plants, and ensuring the long-term reliability of wastewater services. Surcharges help utilities recover investments in infrastructure.
Environmental compliance fees may also appear on a sewage bill, reflecting costs associated with meeting federal and state environmental regulations for wastewater treatment and discharge quality. These regulations often require investment in advanced treatment processes and monitoring. Administrative charges, like late payment fees, are standard across utility services, applied when bills are not settled by their due dates. These fees encourage timely payments and cover the costs of managing delinquent accounts.