CHAPTER VI 

 THE MINIMUM RATE 



It was important for sanitary reasons that no person should be restricted 

 in the liberal use of water and therefore a minimum rate was fixed so that 

 no temptation should exist to lessen the real use of water. J. Herbert 

 Shedd, Jour. N.E.W.W. Assn., Vol. XVIII, 1904, p. 7. 



It is common practice at the present time to establish a 

 minimum charge for each service. This is collected in any event, 

 whether water is drawn or not. The amounts of these mini- 

 mum charges have been fixed by considerations of various kinds. 



The effect of the minimum is to require that all those takers 

 who use less water than the quantity of water represented by 

 it shall pay the same annual bill. In other words the amount 

 of water registered by the meters ceases to be important. within 

 the limit covered by the minimum. 



There are two reasons for the minimuni: 



First, the desire to get a certain necessary revenue from 

 each service even where no water is drawn or where the quantities 

 are too small to be remunerative at the rates that are collected 

 for larger quantities; 



Second, the desire to offer an inducement to people living 

 in the smaller houses not to economize in the use of water below 

 the point which is supposed to be necessary for their health. 



An excellent statement in regard to the reasons for minimum 

 rate by Mr. J. Herbert Shedd, who as city engineer had the 

 management of the water works of Providence, which was one 

 of the earliest cities of considerable size to require the general 

 use of meters, is as follows: * 



When the rates were fixed, the price for measured water was the com- 

 mon one, at that time in New England, of three cents per hundred gallons, 

 and it was thought that $10 per year would pay, at that rate, for all the 

 * Jour. N.E.W.W. Assn., Vol. XVIII, 1904, p. 7. 

 74 



