Toilet Bowl Flush Tax in Australia

[KMAN]

Only a matter of time until this happens here...

Householders to be charged for each flush of toilet | PerthNow

 

[tigerbob]

Only a matter of time until this happens here...

Householders to be charged for each flush of toilet | PerthNow

Unless of course that continent is more incontinent than this continent.

 

[del]

from the link "The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home's value - not its waste water output."

so they're going to bill based on the actual water used rather than on what they estimate would be used based on the home's value? and this is wrong because?

 

[editec]

Hereabouts our sewage bill is based on our water useage.

Seems like a more reasonable (and less expensive) way of charging people for their water discharge that metering the discharge.

 

[WillowTree]

Out house will make a comback. Outhouse in the OUtback.. Good name for a new company..

 

[del]

Hereabouts our sewage bill is based on our water useage.

Seems like a more reasonable (and less expensive) way of charging people for their water discharge that metering the discharge.

unless you use a lot of watering for gardening, it's a pretty fair way to do it, IMO. certainly more fair than basing it on the home's value.

 

[editec]

Hereabouts our sewage bill is based on our water useage.

Seems like a more reasonable (and less expensive) way of charging people for their water discharge that metering the discharge.

unless you use a lot of watering for gardening, it's a pretty fair way to do it, IMO. certainly more fair than basing it on the home's value.

Yes, that is true.

Back when I was putting in 2000 sq feet of vegetables my water bill (and therefore sewage bill, too) was rather high in the summer months.

Since I have a pond next to my house the next time I decide to put in a serious vegetable garden, I'll draw gardening water from that source.

If one doesn't have a watersource there's aways capturing rainfall in a cistern system -- assuming you live someplace where you get rain enough to capture, of course.

 

[Missourian]

The Aussies have nothing on us...we had it first!

'You pee, you poo, you pay'.

That’s the saying behind a new $30 annual flush tax in Maryland, the proceeds of which will be used for, among other things, upgrading the state’s sewage treatment plants, which has turned everyone’s toilets into pay toilets.

Needless to say, many Maryland residents are quite upset. One county treasurer reported receiving “thousands of phone calls” after the county sent out tax bills this month. The new Maryland “flush tax,” a $30 fee that generates money for the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Restoration Fund, will be collected for the first time this year.

It was seen as a major piece of environmental legislation for Gov. Robert Ehrlich. It is expected to raise $60 million to $70 million a year to upgrade the state’s 66 major sewage treatment plants to reduce the discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus that pollute the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways.

The money also will be used to upgrade septic systems and fund a cover-crop program that encourages farmers to plant crops that absorb nitrogen.

Owners of property with buildings on them, whether they use public water and sewer systems or septic tanks, must pay the fee. <More>

Maryland began this program in 2005. Note that you pay this tax even If you use a private well and private septic system or own property with a building on it even if no water or sewage is used on the property.

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2005/12/12/marylands-new-flush-tax/

 

[WillowTree]

Hereabouts our sewage bill is based on our water useage.

Seems like a more reasonable (and less expensive) way of charging people for their water discharge that metering the discharge.

unless you use a lot of watering for gardening, it's a pretty fair way to do it, IMO. certainly more fair than basing it on the home's value.

Yes, that is true.

Back when I was putting in 2000 sq feet of vegetables my water bill (and therefore sewage bill, too) was rather high in the summer months.

Since I have a pond next to my house the next time I decide to put in a serious vegetable garden, I'll draw gardening water from that source.

If one doesn't have a watersource there's aways capturing rainfall in a cistern system -- assuming you live someplace where you get rain enough to capture, of course.

I don't know what your ground water levels are but here in Fla. wells serve the prupose nicely.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Does a Libertarian shit in the woods?

hell yes.

 

[rayboyusmc]

If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.

That was the motto in SF when they had their big drought.

 

[Diuretic]

Context is everything. In some parts of Australia we are now lookng at permanent water shortage. I used to have a front garden and a nice back yard. Now I have rocks and dirt out the front and just dirt out the back. Mike Young (one of the blokes in the article) is a water expert and one who has been telling us for some years we're in big trouble. This idea merely reflects reality. Water is a precious commodity but the way some of us who live in arid areas use it has been, to date, wasteful. You'd think in a couple of hundred years of European settlement of this landmass we'd have worked out that you can't live like a European in a desert. We might be using "Dune" as a survival manual

 

[auditor0007]

There's always desalination, but it's expensive.

 

[tigerbob]

There's always desalination, but it's expensive.

Drinking urine is relatively inexpensive.

Except in America, where it is bottled and called 'beer'.

 

[rayboyusmc]

If the ice caps keep melting, we won't have to worry about water.

Look at the way we have taken desert and made towns and golf courses on them all by the use of more water.

The cost of desalinazation may not be a factor in the future.

 

[BenjaminMSU]

This will cause a massive downturn in the demand for coffee, chocolate, and jalapenos LOL

 

[Harry Dresden]

Context is everything. In some parts of Australia we are now lookng at permanent water shortage. I used to have a front garden and a nice back yard. Now I have rocks and dirt out the front and just dirt out the back. Mike Young (one of the blokes in the article) is a water expert and one who has been telling us for some years we're in big trouble. This idea merely reflects reality. Water is a precious commodity but the way some of us who live in arid areas use it has been, to date, wasteful. You'd think in a couple of hundred years of European settlement of this landmass we'd have worked out that you can't live like a European in a desert. We might be using "Dune" as a survival manual

Di ....is it going to be a yearly set fee,or are they seriously thinking of charging per flush?

 

[tigerbob]

This will cause a massive downturn in the demand for coffee, chocolate, and jalapenos LOL

Go Blue.....

 

[Diuretic]

There's always desalination, but it's expensive.

It is, you're very right, and it's energy-intensive and there's the issue of what to do with by-products but it looks like a couple of states look like going to desal plants as there seems to be no alternative.

 

[Diuretic]

There's always desalination, but it's expensive.

Drinking urine is relatively inexpensive.

Except in America, where it is bottled and called 'beer'.