Money Down the Drain. Why are my Water Bills so HIGH?

If you’re a second home owner or someone who rents their place out during the summer months you must be wondering the same thing. How is it that my water bills are so high?  Before moving here I shut off my water during the winter months.  But I was still being billed around $170 a month for water and sewer.  That’s about the same I used to pay quarterly in Pennsylvania.  And I wasn’t using any water!

The answer is that in Ocean City you are billed for your summer utilization year around.  The amount of water you use in the summer months (July, August, and September) is used as a basis for sewer capacity billed throughout the year.  Although the sewer portion is billed thru New Jersey American Water Company (NJAWC) it is Cape May County that treats your sewer and establishes those rates.  NJAWC simply passes the bill along to you.

According to the City website (OCNJ.US) as of 2012 (the last year data was available) you were being billed $1.81 per 1,000 gallons of fresh water and $29.23 per 1,000 gallons of waste water (the sewer rate.)  Two thirds of your water bill is attributable to sewer.  I looked at my water bills over a 12 month period.  They ranged between $135 and $230 per month.  So I’m basically paying around $2,000 per year for the water and sewer I use in those three summer months.  I don’t use all that much water the rest of the year.  I’m the only person that lives here nine months out of the year.  If I used no water my bill would be about the same.

I called NJAWC thinking I must have a leak.  No they said my water utilization is normal.  Then I started looking around.  What about other municipalities?

Rate information isn’t easy to find.  Could it be Cape May County (and particularly Ocean City) doesn’t want you to know how other municipalities are billed?  Thanks to SICTA, Sea Isle City’s counterpart to Fairness In Taxes, I was able to find their rate information for 2010, which they projected into 2011.  Sea Isle City has a staggered rate.  In 2010 the sewer authority was charging its customers $17.01 per 1,000 gallon of waste water in the summer months and $.79 per 1,000 gallon the rest of the year.  So customers in Ocean City are being billed between $12 to $28 more per 1,000 gallons of waste water for the same service; at least for the base rate.  And as far as I can tell we’re the only municipality that is billed for summer utilization year around.  What kind of deal did the City negotiate with the Cape May County Sewer Authority?  How did it get this way?  Can we renegotiate this arrangement?

I’m trying to find out.  I have an OPRA request into the City and will dig deeper.  And I’m wondering why, once again, it falls to the citizens of this town to investigate this kind of thing.  What exactly are our elected officials doing?

That’s all I have for now.  I’ll write a follow up to as more information becomes available.