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guest0112 t1_j9x5wlj wrote

Our expensive water bills. On one hand our water is really fucking expensive (hey $40/month in fees that used to be lower AND quarterly). Expensive water is like expensive gasoline, it hits poorer people the harder (on a % to income level). That said, more expensive water (and gas) should reduce consumption and help the planet.

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BJJBean t1_j9ylxhi wrote

Only problem with this thinking is that consumption has nothing to do with the cost of our water bills. The vast majority of the bill is taxes/fees/etc.

You could use no water all month and your bill would still be the same compared to your normal usage due to this. In no way does our high water cost disincentive water usage because the majority of the cost has nothing to do with the usage but rather the fees to upkeep the large, wildly mismanaged/neglected, water system we have in the city.

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baller410610 t1_j9yfdbf wrote

There is no point in conserving water if you live in the east coast. You’re not helping the planet in any way.

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Xanny t1_j9z7rys wrote

90% of my water bill is fixed fees, so I am definitely not actively trying to conserve water, my usage doesn't mean anything for my bill.

That being said, fixed fees are a regressive tax. The city needs to abolish them and just raise costs per gallon to offset them.

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malakamanforyou t1_j9ye27b wrote

How does less consumption of water help the planet here on the east coast? It's always raining, our reservoirs are full, we have no drought. Water isn't finite. Your comment makes no sense.

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wave-garden t1_ja01hhc wrote

Water treatment on the front and back end is expensive. Volume does matter, even if there’s a not a shortage of fresh water. Baltimore is in a good place wrt water quality, but that doesn’t happen or continue without sustained effort. It’s taken a concerted effort to improve Chesapeake watershed quality. You can look at cities like Seattle where inadequate infrastructure has caused some big ecological disasters over the past decade. The answer imo is to have a great governor (looking at you, Wes Moore) who can help improve things so less of the budget for public works falls on working class taxpayers rather than wealthy businesses. The city government alone can’t fix things.

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malakamanforyou t1_ja0750d wrote

The city government is the cause for the high water bills. They are mismanaged, inept, and negligent. Baltimore county uses the same infrastructure that Baltimore city uses and their water bill is 20% or less than ours. The city imposes a storm water management fee and yet can’t even process the sewage that is pumped directly into the sewage processing facilities. And if you were to open your eyes and read the reports of why, you will see it’s the management, or lack there of, that causes it. The best possible way to lower our water bills is to take it away from city control

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wave-garden t1_ja0d4q7 wrote

City infrastructure is very old, and much of it needs to be replaced. Because the city has an insufficient tax base, it can’t afford most of this work and needs to keep applying bandaid fixes because it can’t afford to deal with the root cause. It’s an unhelpful comparison to equate Baltimore city and county because of the many other differences, such as higher population density, lower median income, greater difficulty in establishing work areas due to traffic volumes, extent of paved/built area, occupational hazards like lead and asbestos being far more common in the city, etc. Sure, mismanagement plays a role, but it’s unhelpful to attribute everything to that.

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malakamanforyou t1_ja18527 wrote

The only county/city to lose people from one census to the next in the entire dc to Boston area was Baltimore city. The decades of shit leadership and shit policies are creating this mess.

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