Got a lovely letter today from our power company, Pacific Power. They're urging us to vote no on the proposed public utility district coming up for an election in November.
If they thought we needed convincing that a local government bureaucracy is not the way to run a utility in these parts, they shouldn't have wasted the stamp. Because also in the mail today came our quarterly water and sewer bill from the City of Portland -- an abomination. Forget about the price of water -- it may be more economical to water the garden with Perrier -- but the real kicker's the sewer portion of the bill. To tap into the Portland sewer system is now costing our single-family house $88.47 a quarter (not counting the $17.18 "base charge" that you pay each quarter just for having a Water Bureau account, even if you keep the taps off and never flush). That's around a buck a day just for the sewer.
They wonder why people in Portland are so uptight. It's not all the coffee or beer. We can't afford to go to the bathroom. Pretty soon it will be cheaper to disconnect the house and just use pay toilets.
Don't worry, Pacific Power. Your vote is safe with me.
Comments (1)
Your sewer bill is so high because the city is under federal orders to stop dumping your crap into the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. The reason the city sometimes dumps your crap into those rivers is that in older parts of the city (such as where you live) the sewer and storm drainage systems are combined, so a significant storm event will overload the sewage treatment plant. The solution, many more pipes, is very expensive. Unless you want to continue to see your crap dumped into the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, I don't see any alternatives. This isn't Victoria BC, where the strong currents of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca push everyone's crap far out to sea where nobody notices its ill effects.
Posted by Gordo | September 30, 2003 1:31 PM