Posted on 02/16/2009 6:48:40 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
HOUSEHOLDERS would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought.
The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home's value - not its waste water output.
CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit member Jim McColl and Adelaide University Water Management Professor Mike Young plan to promote the move to state and federal politicians and experts across the country.
"It would encourage people to reduce their sewage output by taking shorter showers,recycling washing machine water or connecting rainwater tanks to internal plumbingto reduce their charges,''Professor Young said.
"Some people may go as far as not flushing their toilet as often because the less sewage you produce, the less sewage rate you pay.''
Professor Young said sewer pricing needed to be addressed as part of the response to the water crisis.
"People have been frightened to talk about sewage because it is yucky stuff, but it is critically important to address it, as part of the whole water cycle,'' he said.
"We are looking at reforming the way sewage is priced and this plan will drive interest in the different ways water is used throughout Australia.''
The reform would see the abolition of the property-based charge with one based on a pay-as-you-go rate and a small fixed annual fee to cover the cost of meter readings and pipeline maintenance, Professor Young said.
The pay-as-you-go rate would provide financial savings for those who reduce their waste water output.
Professor Young and Mr McColl will promote the plan nationally through their Droplet, a newsletter whose 6000 subscribers include state and federal politicians, water policy specialists and economists around the country.
Professor Young said a sewage pricing plan, like the one proposed, was already used in the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
I doubt you understand the principle. Supply pipes are pressurized and full, as in no air space. Sewage pipes are what is referred to as open channel flow. THey can’t meter that very easily.
Seems to me septic tanks are going to be the wave of the future again eh?!
I work in a brewery. We have readers installed all over the place to tell flow and temps of all fluids going in and out of the plant. Pressurized, gravity fed, you name it, they read it.
Its a gimmick. The sewers used to be paid from our city property tax. But the Dems upstate figured out a way to get more tax money out of the "rich and propertied" ---/s.... State law now mandates that the city separate the charge for sewers and they call it a "fee"----So, now one gets property tax and sewer fee-- and I guess that's supposed to make people think that somehow a "fee" is not a tax. -:)
Good luck in Maryland.
I wish it was a hoax. What they do here is apply a sewage fee to all of your water usage. So my sewage bill is always the same as my water usage bill. If, for example, you are filling a pool or something of that nature you can call them and get that deducted from the sewage bill. So, it is no hoax but the whole thing stinks. :)
Thanks. We TAX everything in Maryland :)
This is no big deal. Here in the states your sewage rates are typically linked directly to your water bill. The more water you use, the higher your sewage rates are.
“My backyard would see a lot more watering.”
It doesn’t work that way. They don’t measure your sewage quantity, they base it on your water usage.
Intermittent flows, over irregular surfaces, with suspended solids, LARGE SOLIDS, inside cast iron pipe? I’m not convinced.
Seriously, as an Australian, I don’t have any real problem with this.
We’re the driest continent on earth (absent technical arguments about Antartica). Water is a scarce resource. We already have to pay for it - all these changes would do is help break down further what people are paying for and that allows for fairer charging.
I live in Melbourne - we are on what are referred to as Level 3 water restrictions and have been for some time. We’ve been told that we’ll always be on some degree of restriction [We’d love climate change to be real as most predictions say Melbourne, in the long run, would get more water.] Doing what they can to ensure people don’t waste water is a great idea. It might not be needed in other places. But for us, it is essential.
Toilets are one of the easiest things to make more efficient. The main reason most people haven’t done so here is because of the cost. This might provide an incentive to people to think about what they are doing.
The intent is strictly speaking to stop people flushing when they need to - but to generate less water.
I limit myself to three minute showers, and have water efficient toilets installed. My washing machine isn’t water efficient, but it’s on the way out and when I buy a new one that one will be. I’d rather not continue to subsidise those who simply waste water.
This isn’t an insane overreaction by environmentalists. It’s reflection of living in a dry place. The largest dam supplying Melbourne is 20% full. It was last full in 1996.
“Don’t go to the bathroom alone, form a pool.”
Johnny Carson
Our local regional district has imposed a $1 per cubic meter sewerage addition to our water bill. This is on top of the fee for the water supplied to the house through a meter, and on top of our property taxes.
Those who are thinking that a septic tank is the answer are unaware that most municipalities that have sewerage systems have already outlawed septic systems: My folks had to fill their old septic tank with sand when the city forced them to hook up to the municipal sewer.
As for the ability to measure various sizes of semi-solid waste, a simple weigh scale system would be quite accurate. Think about it, if they can read you licence plate from space, or pick out an Al-Qaida cell-phone call with a satellite, measuring the flow of poo out your sewer pipe is child’s play.
Houses I have been in that practice this STINK!
I think we’d see a return to outhouses to out smart these taxes.
Our water and sewer companies are staffed with SEIU employees who earn rates about 30% over what the market should pay. So in this state, blessed with water, we pay 30% higher water and sewer rates than the national average. Go figure!
Just use a bucket and throw it out the window.
You don’t have to pay a tax then.
That's pretty sneaky, IMO, considering I'm on well and septic. The bureaucrats who vote for such taxes ought to ingest peoples' waste.
That's pretty sneaky, IMO, considering I'm on well and septic. The bureaucrats who vote for such taxes ought to ingest peoples' waste.
It sounds like a big time compromise in hygiene and a potential disease risk mandated by bureaucratic interference to me. Didn’t a bunch of you get killed recently by wildfires that spread largely because of intrusive Leftist restrictions on clearing woodland fire hazards?
I've always had metered water, except when on a well, and even then, the more water that's used, the more it costs.
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