CHAPTER XIX 

 HIGHER RATES IN HIGH SERVICE DISTRICTS 



The committee further recommends that where the same works supply 

 water in different services under 1 conditions which impose substantially 

 greater relative expense in one or more such services as compared with 

 others, by reason of high service pumping or otherwise, that it is just and 

 equitable that discriminations be made; and that for water sold in such 

 districts the additional cost may be approximately ascertained and an added 

 price may be charged for water sold in such districts. Report Committee 

 on Meter Rates, Jour. N.E.W.W. Assn., Vol. XXX, p. 363, 1916. 



The common practice in America is to make precisely the 

 same charges for water served from the high service systems as 

 is made for water from low service pipes. The man on the top 

 of the hill, having high service water, pays no more than the 

 man in the valley, although to supply him costs ordinarily from 

 2 to 5 cents more per 1000 gallons, and where the high service 

 districts are small or high or isolated, the extra cost may greatly 

 exceed these figures. 



Cases are not uncommon where the cost of pumping alone for 

 a small high service district exceeds the whole gross revenue 

 derived from it. 



There is no good reason for equality of charge when there is 

 such clearly defined difference in cost of service. The present 

 method is unfair to those who take water upon the low ground. 

 They have to pay their share, which is often a large share, of 

 the extra cost of supplying water to their neighbors who live 

 on higher ground, and this is the more unfair to them, as the 

 hill sites are usually more desirable for residences, and those 

 who live on the hills are well able to pay the added cost which 

 their service entails upon the water department. 



It seems rational and wise to charge more for high service 



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