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Full-cost Pricing
Did you know that A 16 oz bottle of water costs about $1.50 and a thousand gallons of tap water costs about $2.00?
When measured as a percentage of household income, the U.S. pays less for water/wastewater bills than other developed countries. Because of this, the public has been led to believe that water is readily available and cheap. We need to fundamentally shift thinking in this area to meet our essential infrastructure needs. Pricing that recovers the costs of building, operating, and maintaining a system is absolutely essential to achieving sustainability. Drinking water and wastewater utilities must be able to price water to reflect the full costs of treatment and delivery.
To help utilities recognize must implement pricing structures that effectively recover costs and promote environmentally sound decisions by customers, EPA has developed an extensive web site focused on Water and Wastewater Pricing.
- Water and Wastewater Pricing
- Reports
In addition to providing pricing information, EPA has information on a wide variety of funding programs that can help drinking water, wastewater and watershed managers. In March 2007, EPA will bring together stakeholders from all levels of government and the private sector to explore creative methods to pay for sustainable water infrastructure.
