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Understanding Your Bill

You'll want to get to know a few areas of your bill in particular. First, let's look at how you're charged.

Note your billing period (we're all on the same schedule, I believe) in the top-left corner. If you're concerned that you're not being billed accurately, the first thing to do is compare your meter reading on or about the billing date to what's on your bill.

Beneath that, you see "Meter Type." It is most likely going to be 1 inch or 3/4 inch. This sets the basic service charge for water and the volumetric rates, so it's important to know.

Beneath Meter Type, you'll see the actual meter readings (in this case, it even says "actual" on it, meaning the meter was physically read this billing cycle. It may also say "estimated". Note that EPCOR only reads to the thousand gallon mark, so if you're at 25,999, they will read it and charge you at 25k. But, the next gallon you use will rack up a charge for the next thousand.

NOTE: A thousand gallons is a LOT of water. Imagine twenty 50-gallon drums in your backyard or living room. Your bill may not appear to fluctuate month to month, but it's all kept track of.

The "Current Activity" section is where all of the charges are calculated. It is divided into water and wastewater. The basic service charge is a flat fee, based on your meter size. The cost of water is based on the volume that flowed through the meter during the billing cycle. The price per thousand gallons also varies based on your meter size.

The wastewater charge is a flat fee. Thanks to a decision by the ACC to consolidate in 2017, Verrado wastewater rates have gone down the last five years.

Usage and Rates

The average Verrado resident uses 13 thousand gallons in the cool months and up to 24 thousand in the summer. If you're above these numbers, check out the "Conserving and Saving" section for some tips. With just a little effort, we've been able to cut usage in half.

Rates are approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission and are published on the EPCOR website. Verrado is located in EPCOR's Agua Fria district. All EPCOR customers within the Agua Fria district pay the same rates. EPCOR customers in other districts, such as Sun City and Sun City West pay different rates. Make sure you're looking at Agua Fria rates when you visit the EPCOR website.

Many have asked why we don't fall under Buckeye's municipal water system. New communities on the outskirts of municipal areas are often serviced by private providers, because the cost to the city to extend service is more than their tax base is willing to absorb. In a recent comparison, Buckeye's rates, particularly with a 3/4 inch meter, compared very well with Verrado.

As mentioned above, your bill is significantly affected (to the tune of about $40/month) by your meter size. 1 inch meters are charged a higher basic service fee and higher volumetric rates (for the first 10 thousand gallons) than 3/4 inch meters. Many homes are over-built with an unnecessary 1-inch meter. You may be eligible to downsize yours to reduce your bill. Check the "Conserving and Saving" section #2 Downsize your meter for details.

Conserving and Saving

Verrado homes have a lot of grass, trees, plants, and pools. It can seem like your water usage is out of your control. Use our water audit checklist to calculate what your target usage should be and to identify potential problems. They may just be little things, but a lot of little things add up to big money. Here are just a few ways you can cut your bill without a lot of expense or lifestyle changes.

1. Get to know your water meter.

Your meter is MOST LIKELY located in front of your home, just beyond the sidewalk. It's probably
situated to one side of the house. It's buried in a rectangular box with a two-part flip-up lid. You can flip the inner lid to easily take a peek, or you can pry off the whole thing to really take a look. The lid weighs around ten pounds. DO NOT jam your hand straight into the meter box. This is a happy little home for scorpions and other critters, so make sure you use a stick to prod around in there before you reach in. You can easily clean off the lens with some Windex and a paper towel. If you have the little "hockey puck" glued to the top of your lid, this is one of the new meters that electronically transmits the reading to a reader box as the EPCOR meter checker rolls by. Otherwise, you have a meter that needs to be manually read.

The first thing to note is whether any of the indicators on the meter are moving. If they are and you have all the water turned off in your home and yard, then there is an active leak somewhere in the pipe itself. This will take a plumber to fix. FORTUNATELY, this is a pretty rare occurrence. Your bill is calculated in THOUSANDS of gallons. If you have a digital meter, this is pretty obvious to figure out. If you have an older one, then the only numbers that matter are the ones on the rolling dials, not any of the needle readings. Compare this number to the reading your bill. Even better, check it once a week and get a sense of how much you're using. Your bill shouldn't be a surprise.

Handy Note: If you ever had a major leak in your home, this is where you would shut off the water to your house, so even if you're completely happy with your bill, this is an important bit of knowledge. A "t-bar" can be picked up at any hardware store for a few bucks that will turn the little shutoff knob easily.

2. Downsize your meter.
As mentioned in sections above, a 1-inch meter is charged at significantly higher rates than a 3/4-inch meter. Many homes in Verrado were over-built with the larger meter and can be downsized (at a cost) with no impact to the flow of water in your home. If you would like to see if you can take advantage of this option, email us at VerradoUtilitiesCouncil@dmbCommunityLife.com

and we'll send you the details.

3. Look for spillage.
It's important to differentiate leakage from spillage. Leakage means you can't seal your system without shutting the water down at the meter itself. Spillage occurs when your fixtures are blowing out far more water than intended when they're turned on. The single most common cause for spillage is broken components in your drip irrigation system. Tip: When you call out EPCOR or a sprinkler service, they are going to look for LEAKAGE at the meter or irrigation control heads, not spillage. So, even if you've just had a check-up, don't assume you're fine. Check for yourself.

Finding spillage in your irrigation system is simple. Turn on a zone with the control box and walk around the drip heads that have been turned on. Look and listen (since many of them are underneath bushes) for free-flowing water. They're actually very easy to find, as they tend to be fountaining across your yard and make a racket. Replacement heads can be bought at the hardware store for just a few dollars a bag and are just pressed in the end of the line by hand. Besides the fountains, you may have two other issues. I call them orphans and springs. Orphans are drip lines that aren't going to any plants. While these aren't necessarily using a LOT of water, they're not doing you any favors. A bag of little stoppers can also be picked up for just a few dollars.

Springs, on the other hand, are a BIG DEAL. Springs most often happen when a drip line comes unplugged from a main supply line. They're a little harder to find at first. Look for lines that AREN'T dripping that should be. Also, after a few minutes, you'll probably see a small puddle forming out of nowhere with a little burble in the middle: a spring. These guys take a little more work to fix. You have to dig down to the main supply and, most likely, cut out the leaking section and replace it with a short piece of pressure coupling. That's a fancy term for "jam the cut line into either end of it" rather than screwing or gluing the joint together. It takes some hand strength, but it's not technical.

4. Check your pool system for leakage.
A lot of people we've spoken to assume they are just doomed to high usage because they have pools. Our research shows that, here in the desert southwest, you can expect to lose about 2,500 gallons per month from your standard backyard pool due to evaporation during the HOTTEST parts of the year, much less in the cooler months. That accounts for about $15 a month of a person's bill. If you subtract out that $15 and still feel like your bill is out of hand, you may have a bigger issue. To be transparent, we don't have a pool. But this is a quick and easy way to measure how much water you're losing to evaporation as opposed to possible leakage somewhere.

First, turn off your automatic pool refiller if you have one.
Place a bucket of water on the top step of the pool and fill it with water to the pool’s water level. A large rock or brick will keep it in place
Mark the water level inside the bucket.
Mark the pool water level on the outside of the bucket.
Wait two or three days, if the water level of the pool (outside mark) is lower than the bucket, there is probably a leak in the pool structure or plumbing system and it's time to call a pool repair or plumber.

5. Check your toilets.
Hard water can form deposit around your toilet valves that keep them from sealing properly. The result is a steady stream of water transferring from your tank to your bowl (and down the drain). The easiest way to test for this is to color the water in your tank and then watch to see how much of the color transfers into your bowl over time. You don't need anything fancy for this test; even a little cola will work. So long as the tank water is dark enough to see a difference. If you have a significant change in color in a short amount of time (less than 30 minutes), this could be adding up to $$$ on your bill.

As a homeowner, these are a few steps you can easily take yourself to make sure you have a handle on the water you're using. In our own home, we've cut our usage in half just by fixing a few simple issues. If you go through these steps and your bill is STILL out of hand, you have a much stronger case to take to the water company for a dispute.

For even more tips, visit the "Water, Use it Wisely" website.

6. Water Audits.

If you are using more water than you should, the Verrado Utility Council offers free in-home water audits in finding opportunities to save.

Getting Help

Your Utilities Council is always available to answer questions or help you resolve issues. But, in most cases, working directly with the provider will get you the fastest results. We ask that you start there and contact us if they aren't able to resolve the issue to your satisfaction.

You can also file a complaint with the Arizona Corporation Commission on their .w ebsite

EPCOR Customer Service: 1-800-383-0834
mywater@epcor.com
Correspondence or in-person:
EPCOR Water
15626 Del Webb Blvd.
Sun City, AZ 85351-1602

Utilities Council: VerradoUtilitiesCouncil@dmbcommunitylife.com

Utilities Council

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