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Actually, here in SW PA, they charge a sewer rate based on your water meter rate. The assumption is if you bring the water in, an equal amount goes out. I wanted to discharge the grey water into the backyard and was told I would have to get a separate meter hookup to get the credit. The meter charge, as you can probably guess, costs more than the credit would bring in.

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!

As noted, standard practice is to assume that what comes in goes down the sewer.

The only way to mitigate the sewer cost ascribed to water use is to add a separate approved water meter for outside use like lawn sprinklers or outside faucets for pool filling, etc. Here in the Pittsburgh region, our idiot sewer authority (ALCOSAN) recently signed a $3 billion Consent Agreement with the EPA to clean up their river discharge.

This is the equivalent in today's dollars to asking 300,000 homes and apartments to pay for building 1.3 new Hoover Dams! The end result is that our residential sewer charges will increase ultimately to well over $1,000 per year.

Many other Eastern cities are now under similar consent decrees and will ultimately face similar costs.

I got active at one point and put up a Web site to alert the public to the cost issues at Alcosan's $3 billion Settlement:Issues and Cost to You. However, there were only a couple of homeowners at the public meeting and ALCOSAN would not even discuss the impact cost of their EPA Consent Agreement on their own residential homeowners!!