national multiple family submetering and allocation billing program ...

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under construction after January 1, 2003, must have a plumbing system that is compatible with the installation of individual meters or submeters. The law further required that submeters or individual meters be installed, either by the facility owners or by the local utility. Utilities are obligated to install submeters or individual meters if requested by a property owner or manager, unless the utility finds that the installation of meters is not feasible. However, if the utility so finds, then the property owner is not obligated to install meters or submeters either. Three of the Texas utilities surveyed for this study reported that they install individual meters in multi-family properties. However, the practice is not thought to be widespread. Taken together, the effect of these provisions has resulted in few new structures being fully submetered. Furthermore, the law makes no provision for meters, once installed, to be used for billing purposes. At least one new property is reported to have submeters installed but is actually billing residents through a RUBS allocation system. Another notable feature of the Texas statute is a set of requirements relating to water efficiency that must be met as a condition of the adoption of any new billing system, either submetering or RUBS. Prior to conversion, owners must perform an audit of each unit and repair any leaks that are found, and must ensure that all faucets, faucet aerators, and showerheads meet current water efficiency standards. Within one year of conversion, any toilets that flush in excess of 3.5 gallons per flush must be replaced with toilets that meet current water efficiency standards (1.6 gpf). The effectiveness of this last provision has been greatly diminished by exempting the large class of toilets designed to flush at 3.5 gpf, commonly installed in Texas from about 1980 to 1992, from the replacement requirement. The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) partially regulates water submetering and RUBS, and allows it. However, at the time of the survey for this report (2002), the SCC reported that the Department of Agriculture as well as the Consumer Service Division of the Consumer Protection Office of Product and Industry Standards have recently informed entities that are making use of RUBS that the use of a RUBS is not allowed under the statutes that those offices enforce. In both Wyoming and West Virginia, the Public Service Commissions consider any properties with either submetering or RUBS to be a public utility subject to regulation, which may account for the lack of billing implementation in these two states. 232
Safe Drinking Water Regulation In North Carolina, the North Carolina Drinking Water Act is administered by the Public Water Supply Section of the Division of Environmental Health, a part of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. In conformance with guidance from the US EPA, North Carolina's law provides for submetered systems in multi-family properties to be deemed "consecutive water systems." The import of this designation is that under the law, the monitoring, analysis, and record-keeping requirements that would otherwise apply will be satisfied by the monitoring, analysis, and record-keeping performed by the supplying water system, i.e., the public utility. As of the end of 2002, the Water Supply Section reported a total of 236 active submetered apartment systems in its database of 8,000 active public water systems (NC Compliance Report 2002). Concerns arose in North Carolina that the US EPA's continued insistence that the "sale" of water through billing systems carried obligations for certain on-site monitoring activities presented a potential barrier to expanded use of submetering (EPA 2000). In response, in 2001 the NC General Assembly revised its law (GS62-110g) "for the purpose of encouraging water conservation" by striking reference to "allowing the resale of water" and substituting procedures that "allow a lessor, pursuant to a written rental agreement, to allocate the costs for providing water and wastewater service on a metered use basis" to persons who occupy the same contiguous premises. The practical effect of the attempted work-around by the state is unclear. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management undertook further refinement of the "consecutive water system" designation by creating a new designation, the "segmental water system," and found favor with the US EPA. The designation, which waived on-site monitoring requirements for multi-family properties with billing systems, carried certain additional qualifications. The designation was made available to facilities comprised primarily of indoor plumbing rather than underground distribution lines, and having no on-site water pumping, no on-site storage, and no cross-connection or backflow situations as attested to by licensed plumber. Additionally, segmental systems must employ a certified water operator "to be available as needed" to respond to water quality complaints. Qualifying facilities must apply for recertification every three years, and are maintained in ADEM's database of public water systems. As of the end of 2002, ADEM reported 16 segmental water systems out of a total of 705 active public water systems (ADEM 2002). 233
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NATIONAL MULTIPLE FAMILY SUBMETERIN
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CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES............
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Matched-Pair Analysis .............
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LIST OF TABLES Table ES.1.1 Breakdo
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Table 6.6 Elasticity values, analys
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Figure 4.30 RUBS water bill #6 ....
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investigated local water savings as
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We are grateful to the members of a
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quantitative aspects of separate bi
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3. Owner/postcard survey: To identi
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"averages" of impact property water
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in-rent properties, others used the
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of these models included the billin
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70 Average Annual Water Use Per Uni
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COSTS AND BENEFITS Beyond quantifyi
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service charge, then the resident w
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Billing Method Efficient Fixtures?
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70 Avg. Water Use per MF Unit (kgal
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REGULATORY FRAMEWORK REVIEW The fra
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Table ES.1.12 NSUAA Summary of Stat
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above, the researchers offer the fo
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service is preferable, and would he
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practices (BMPs) should be implemen
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infrastructure of the building and
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multi-family housing. The transfer
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODU CTION More and mo
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In 1998, 15.0%, or 15.4 million, of
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TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS OF BILL
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submetering. With utility-submeteri
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all the two bedroom units for $20 p
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HOW TO USE THIS REPORT This report
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CHAPTER 2 LITERAT URE REVIEW As the
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A review of the literature unearthe
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The price elasticity of water deman
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expected. Additionally, McClelland
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submetered and five control (in-ren
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Another study might want to target
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CHAPTER 3 RESEARC H METHODS, APPROA
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1. Selection of participating study
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STUDY SITE SELECTION The Study aime
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Figure 3.2 National Multiple Family
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Matched pair protocol/survey - conf
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information given the available bud
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survey. Service companies that prov
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in “business to business” calli
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MATCHED PAIR SAMPLE The purpose of
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The second part of the visit requir
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epresentative of a known population
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51 Table 3.7 Postcard survey statis
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Table 3.8 Comparison of annual wate
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postcard survey. Nevertheless, exam
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confidence interval ranged from 49.
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particular property (e.g., the mont
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State PUC officials - water commiss
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10. The PROPID number appearing on
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These costs represent the commodity
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The postcard survey provided inform
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Table 4.4 Average number of units f
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Two-thirds of the properties that r
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Percent of Surveyed Properties with
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$700 Average Rent Per Bedroom ($) $
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Percent of Surveyed Properties with
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Impact properties were also more li
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Table 4.8 Issues considered before
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Percent of Surveyed Impact Properti
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60% Percent of Surveyed Properties
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From the visits, it was found that
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100% Percent of Surveyed Residents
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Roughly similar proportions of resi
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inserts for toilets (21%) or low-fl
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proportion were unsure, 37% from su
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Table 4.18 Ownership and rental rat
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Figure 4.17 Submeter water bill #1
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wastewater rates are not shown so t
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Figure 4.23 Hot water hybrid water
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RUBS Sample Bills Seven sample RUBS
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wastewater rates are not shown so t
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Figure 4.28 RUBS water bill #4 from
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Figure 4.30 RUBS water bill #6 RUBS
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directly to and then paid by the th
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never subtracting for common area w
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Late Fees At the start of water bil
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124
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intuitively clear, and matches comm
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Indoor water use was normalized on
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Table 5.3 Summarized water use anal
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easonable assumption since there is
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Figure 5.1 shows the frequency dist
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40 Difference in Annual Water Use p
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after 1995. By including only those
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Table 5.11 Statistical tests compar
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Factors that Influence Water Use Th
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Table 5.12 Association of categoric
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Indoor Water Use per Unit in 2001 I
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Table 5.13 Continuous factors from
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Multivariate Models to Determine Im
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properties built before 1995 were c
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A = Beta coefficient for “Propert
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substantially reduces the sample si
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Table 5.17 Model #2 coefficients an
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0.00 indicating that whatever fit d
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commodity charge for water and wast
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properties having generally lower w
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110 Average Annual Water Use Per Un
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analysis, intended to control best
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Table 5.27 Paired samples test, all
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Table 5.30 Estimated water use befo
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Table 5.33 Comparison of water savi
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180
Page 234 and 235: sector only reduced usage by 18% (A
Page 236 and 237: Table 6.1 Avoided costs from submet
Page 238 and 239: submetered. Complete responses of c
Page 240 and 241: included in this cost/benefit analy
Page 242 and 243: Table 6.3 Cost and benefit for owne
Page 244 and 245: Perceived Concerns In the resident
Page 246 and 247: With a service fee, residents could
Page 248 and 249: Table 6.4 Economic return for a res
Page 250 and 251: ANALYSIS OF PRICE ELASTICITIES Econ
Page 252 and 253: concluded that if a single elastici
Page 254 and 255: esults from this analysis point to
Page 256 and 257: over which they have control than d
Page 258 and 259: According to the basic consumer cho
Page 260 and 261: The consumer choice problem can be
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Page 264 and 265: water systems from compliance with
Page 266 and 267: and methods of practice. NIST publi
Page 268 and 269: Table 7.1 NSUAA Summary of State Re
Page 270 and 271: New Surveys of State Agencies and W
Page 272 and 273: the AWWA WaterStats 1999 database.
Page 274 and 275: Measures, which dispatches a public
Page 276 and 277: Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania
Page 278 and 279: 226 Table 7.6 Summary of utility re
Page 280 and 281: DISCUSSION - KEY EXAMPLES OF STATE
Page 282 and 283: ill. Condominium associations are g
Page 286 and 287: Weights and Measures Regulation In
Page 288 and 289: from the submetering. Meter testing
Page 290 and 291: clean and decent housing or the lac
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Page 294 and 295: NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE F
Page 296 and 297: complaints in all 50 states and app
Page 298 and 299: - Meters must demonstrate in testin
Page 300 and 301: - Plumbing systems are space constr
Page 302 and 303: (2) Twisted or kinked flex supply l
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Page 306 and 307: Estimated Water Use By Different Bi
Page 308 and 309: there are clear benefits to these s
Page 310 and 311: study site. These values were then
Page 312 and 313: immediately strengthens the owner's
Page 314 and 315: among the nation's key strategies f
Page 316 and 317: all repair and replacement decision
Page 318 and 319: These findings underscore the obser
Page 320 and 321: varies with volume of use) for mult
Page 322 and 323: Recommendation 6 - Efficient plumbi
Page 324 and 325: financially responsible for their o
Page 326 and 327: individual unit, the volume allocat
Page 328 and 329: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARC
Page 330 and 331: Fixed rates - Part of a master mete
Page 332 and 333: Total-capture submetering - a type
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282
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Corral, L.R. 1997. Price and Non-Pr
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McClelland, L. 1980. Encouraging En
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Young, C.E., K.R. Kinsley and W.E.
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