Questions & Answers

What Is a Starting Water Allowance?

A starting water allowance is the amount of water billed at the regular rate before higher rates begin.

Once the starting water allowance is used, additional water is billed at higher rates. This pricing system is designed to encourage responsible water conservation.

Why does household size matter in water billing?

Under the Veolia residential rate structure this proposal addresses, the starting water allowance is the same no matter how many people live in the household.

Simple illustration

Every person has basic water needs. The fairness question is whether those needs should become more expensive simply because more people share one meter.

The proposal would make the starting allowance fairer while the same higher conservation rates continue to apply.

What exactly is this proposal?

This proposal would allow approved participating households to receive a fairer starting water allowance adjusted for household size.

Higher rates for higher water use would remain in place for households of every size and would continue to encourage responsible water conservation.

Would participation be optional?

Yes. Participation would be entirely optional.

Households that choose not to participate would keep their current starting water allowance and would not need to apply or provide household information.

The proposal would provide an additional option for eligible households—not replace the tiered pricing system or the higher conservation rates.

Who can participate?

This proposal is intended for households that choose to participate and meet the eligibility rules established for the program, with the same eligibility requirements applying to everyone who participates.

The PSC and utilities would determine the exact eligibility requirements for New York.

How would household size be verified?

Households that choose to participate would be able to request an adjustment through a secure online process and provide reasonable proof of how many permanent residents live in the home.

Once approved, participating households would receive a fairer starting water allowance adjusted for household size, while the higher conservation rates would remain in place.

Households that do not participate would continue under the current system and would not need to provide household information.

How is privacy protected?

Applicants would only be asked to provide the information needed to confirm household size.

Applications would be submitted through a secure online process. Customer information would be used only to review and administer the household-size adjustment.

Appropriate human review would help ensure accuracy while protecting customer privacy. The PSC and utilities would establish the exact application, documentation, privacy, and renewal rules for New York.

Would higher rates still encourage water conservation?

Yes. Higher rates for higher water use would remain in place for households of every size.

Once a participating household uses its adjusted starting water allowance, any additional water would continue to be billed at the higher rates.

Those higher rates would continue to encourage responsible water conservation.

Would smaller households end up paying more if larger households receive an adjustment?

That is an important fairness question, but it also has to be asked the other way: are larger households already paying more per gallon for some basic everyday water use because more people share one meter and the same starting allowance?

The goal is not to favor smaller households or larger households. Either direction would be unfair. Basic water needs should be treated equitably for households of every size, while higher conservation rates continue to encourage careful use and discourage avoidable overuse—not make ordinary basic needs more expensive simply because more people share one meter.

Veolia would still have to recover its approved revenue, so the PSC would have to review the effect of any final design on all customers before approving it. The current system should not be assumed fair merely because it is the current system.

Has this type of system been used elsewhere?

Yes. Comparable water utilities already use household-size adjustments or individualized water budgets while keeping higher conservation rates in place.

For example, Irvine Ranch Water District and Las Virgenes Municipal Water District have programs that can account for the number of permanent residents when determining a household's water budget or allowance.

The exact rules differ, and these programs are examples—not models New York would automatically copy. They show that household occupancy can be recognized within a conservation-oriented rate structure through voluntary requests, verification, privacy protections, periodic review or renewal, and established customer-service processes. New York would still need to set its own rules and determine administrative costs. More examples and supporting research are available on the Research page.

Would this significantly increase utility administrative costs?

Modern online systems can handle much of the application and document processing, reducing paperwork and manual work.

Staff would still review applications as needed to confirm eligibility and accuracy. Comparable utilities already administer similar adjustments through online applications, document review, and established customer-service processes. A New York program could use many of the same tools, while its exact staffing and administrative costs would depend on the final design.

Why can the number of apartments matter in multifamily water billing?

In many multifamily properties, one master water meter serves all of the apartments together.

Veolia applies the multifamily rate tiers to the total water use recorded at that meter. As more apartments share one meter, more households contribute to that total use.

That means a property with many apartments can reach higher-priced tiers sooner than one with only a few apartments, even when average water use per apartment is lower.

The fairness question is whether the rate structure should better reflect how many separate homes are being served behind one master meter.

Don’t multifamily buildings already receive larger water allowances?

Yes. Veolia’s multifamily rate structure already provides larger lower-priced water blocks than those for an individual household.

The concern is that those blocks are fixed for the whole property. They do not increase according to how many apartments share the meter.

So as more apartments share one meter, less lower-tier water is available per apartment.

The issue is not that multifamily properties receive no accommodation. The question is whether the existing allowance adequately reflects the number of dwelling units being served.

Simple illustration

Imagine two master-metered properties:

• One has 4 apartments.
• The other has 40 apartments.

Both share the same first 20 CCF lower-priced block.

If that 20 CCF is viewed across the number of apartments being served:

• For 4 apartments, it is equivalent to 5 CCF per apartment.
• For 40 apartments, it is equivalent to only 0.5 CCF per apartment.

Now suppose every apartment uses exactly 5 CCF during the month.

• 4 apartments × 5 CCF = 20 CCF. The property's total use fits within the first block.
• 40 apartments × 5 CCF = 200 CCF. The property uses ten times the amount in the first block, even though each apartment used exactly the same amount of water as in the 4-apartment property.

Same average use per apartment. But because many more apartments share one master meter, much more of the property's water moves beyond the first lower-priced block.

Is the multifamily issue the same as the household-size issue?

No. They are related fairness issues, but they are two different problems.

The household-size issue is about how many people share one separately metered home.

The multifamily issue is about how many separate apartments share one master meter.

Both raise the same basic question: whether higher total use should automatically be treated as higher or less-efficient use when the meter is serving more people or more homes.

Fixing one would not fix the other. Each issue requires its own solution.

What does WaterRatesNY want done about multifamily rates?

WaterRatesNY supports having Veolia develop a fairer multifamily rate structure for PSC review—one that more appropriately reflects the number of dwelling units sharing a master meter while preserving conservation-oriented pricing.

The goal is not to choose the exact formula here. It is to make sure the number of homes behind one meter is meaningfully considered in a fairer rate design.