The Manhasset-Lakeville Water District has changed the way residents are billed for their water usage by combining types of usage and charging residents one rate who may have previously been charged separately for domestic water use and irrigation.
Manhasset-Lakeville Water District Superintendent Paul Schrader said the change was made to correct inequities in their billing.
“These separate services have created an inequity by allowing the larger residential property owners to pay less for the same amount of water,” Schrader wrote in an email to Schneps Media Long Island. “…By combining domestic and irrigation services into one bill the district eliminated the inequity to the vast majority of our residential customers.”
Schrader said the district recently updated its billing software and bill layout that now lets them combine multiple accounts for one location into one bill. The new system was voted on by the district’s Board of Commissioners.
He said the district’s counsel advised the board that it was not necessary to approve an additional resolution to cover the new billing system combining multiple accounts into one bill.
Schrader said a majority of residences in the district’s coverage area have only one water service for both domestic water use and external irrigation. He said some larger residences, however, had the two services split into two separate bills.
The water district’s rates for charging users is based on the amount of water used.
By having two separate bills, this diminishes the total amount of water used for each bill and thus charges the account holder at a lower rate.
For example, if a resident used 50,000 gallons of water it would be charged at a rate of $1.70/1000 gallons. This would amount to $85.
But if those 50,000 gallons were split between two separate bills, such as 15,000 gallons for domestic use and 35,000 for irrigation, then it would be charged at a lower rate.
The rate for upwards of 36,000 gallons used is set at $1.35/1,000 gallons. This would make the resident’s bills $20.25 and 47.25, totaling $67.50. This is $17.50 less than if the resident was charged with one combined water use bill.
Manhasset resident Neil Smith said he had been receiving two separate bills for the past 32 years before the change. He said it was done without any explanation nor warning, tripling his domestic water bill.
“This ‘hidden price increase’ is just the latest example of how poorly the Manhasset-Lakeville Water District treats not just senior citizen customers, but all its customers,” Smith wrote to Schneps Media Long Island.
Schrader said individuals can lower their water bills by lowering their usage, which can be done through practices such as watering every other day, installing a rain sensor or installing smart irrigation controllers.
The district’s water rates are also approved by the water district’s Board of Commissioners via a vote. Schrader said the rates are set at a tiered system with higher rates for higher water usage to promote conservation.
