Today, the starting water allowance under the Veolia residential rate structure this proposal addresses is the same no matter how many people live in the household.

More people sharing one home means more basic water needs for cooking, bathing, laundry, cleaning, and sanitation. Because the same starting allowance applies regardless of household size, larger households can reach higher-priced tiers sooner through those basic needs—even when water is being used carefully.

That is a rate-equity question: should basic water needs become more expensive simply because more people share one meter?

The goal is treating basic indoor water needs more fairly for households of every size.

A Fair, Practical Solution

WaterRatesNY is asking New York State legislators to support an optional household-size adjustment and encourage regulatory action to evaluate and advance it.

Under this proposal:

• Participation would be entirely voluntary.
• Participating households could request an adjusted starting water allowance based on the number of permanent residents in the home.
• Households that do not choose to participate would keep their current starting water allowance.
• Verification could be completed through a secure process with appropriate privacy protections, with the same eligibility and verification rules applying to all participating households.
• The fairness adjustment would be limited to the starting water allowance. Participating households would pay the same tier rates as other customers, and higher-priced conservation tiers would remain in place for water used beyond that allowance.
• New York regulators and utilities would establish the exact eligibility, documentation, privacy, renewal, and implementation rules, and the PSC would review bill impacts and revenue recovery before any final design is adopted.

Comparable water utilities already operate household-occupancy adjustment programs while preserving conservation-oriented pricing. Their experience shows that household-size adjustments, reasonable verification, privacy protections, practical administration, and continued conservation incentives can work together.

Send a letter to your New York State Senator and Assemblymember asking them to support this optional adjustment.

Basic water needs should not become more expensive simply because more people share one water meter.

Fair water rates should encourage conservation—not penalize household size.