Fair Water Rates Should Encourage Conservation — Not Penalize Household Size
Veolia gives the households covered by this proposal the same starting water allowance whether one person or many people live in the home. The starting water allowance is the amount of water billed at the regular rate before higher rates begin.
That can cause larger households to reach higher-priced tiers sooner through ordinary daily needs. WaterRatesNY supports an optional household-size adjustment so participating households can receive a fairer starting allowance—while higher conservation rates remain.
Take ActionSend a letter to your New York State Senator and Assemblymember.
Why Household Size Matters
Households come in many sizes for many reasons. Some include multigenerational or larger families, while others share one home because separate housing is too costly.
- Everyday needs increase: More people means more water is naturally needed for bathing, laundry, cooking, cleaning, and other basic needs.
- The starting allowance stays the same: It does not increase just because more people live in the home.
- Higher rates can begin sooner: A larger household can therefore reach higher-priced tiers through ordinary household use.
- It is a fairness and rate-equity issue: Basic residential needs should be treated equitably regardless of how many people share one water meter.
A Practical Solution
WaterRatesNY proposes an optional household-size adjustment to the starting water allowance.
- Optional: Households could choose whether to participate.
- Fairer starting allowance: Approved households would receive an adjustment based on the number of permanent residents.
- Same tier rates: Participating households would pay the same tier rates as other customers.
- Conservation stays: Higher rates would still apply after the adjusted starting allowance is used.
- Verified and private: The PSC and utility would establish reasonable rules for verification, privacy, and renewal.
- Already workable elsewhere: Comparable water utilities already use household-occupancy adjustments or water budgets while keeping conservation-oriented higher rates in place.
- Same goal—fairness: The adjustment is intended to treat basic household needs more equitably, not provide a special discounted water rate.
Current System
Optional Proposal
Concept Illustration — Basic Water Allowance (illustrative only; not intended to show the exact adjustment).
Update — August 2026
Another Rate-Equity Issue: Master-Metered Multifamily Buildings
- One meter can serve many homes: In many multifamily buildings, one master water meter serves all of the apartments together.
- Multifamily buildings already get a larger allowance: Their lower-priced water blocks are larger than those for an individual household, but they are fixed for the whole building and do not grow with the number of apartments. So as more apartments share the meter, less lower-tier water is available per apartment.
- Larger buildings can therefore reach higher-priced tiers sooner: This can happen even when the average water use in each apartment is lower.
- It is also a fairness and rate-equity issue: The question is whether the rate structure should better reflect how many separate homes are being served behind one master meter.
- WaterRatesNY supports addressing it: We support having Veolia examine this issue and propose a fairer multifamily rate structure for PSC review.
- It requires its own solution: Household size and multifamily building size are different problems. Fixing one would not fix the other.
4 apartments
1 master meter
First lower-priced block
40 apartments
1 master meter
First lower-priced block
Same first lower-priced block — many more apartments sharing it.
Illustrative only. The 5 CCF and 0.5 CCF figures are equivalent shares of the same 20 CCF first block—not amounts Veolia assigns to individual apartments and not a proposed rate formula.
WaterRatesNY will advocate for both rate-equity issues while keeping the solutions separate and appropriate to each.
Questions, Examples, and Supporting Research
Want more detail on how the proposal could work, how conservation and privacy would be protected, or what the research shows?
Take Action
Send a letter to your New York State Senator and Assemblymember asking them to support fairer residential water rates for both larger households and master-metered multifamily buildings.
The goal is to address both rate-equity problems while keeping conservation-oriented higher rates in place.
Take ActionWhen you continue to Action Network, enter your address to identify your State Senator and Assemblymember. You can review and personalize the letter before sending it. Nothing is sent until you complete the final submission.
Note: This campaign focuses on Veolia Water New York customers in Rockland and Orange Counties.
Contact WaterRatesNY
Questions, feedback, and professional inquiries are welcome. WaterRatesNY welcomes messages from residents, legislators and legislative staff, regulators, utility representatives, journalists, researchers, advocates, and municipal officials.
Email: contact@waterratesny.org
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