According to state law, water and sewer customers need to "pay their fair share of the costs of such services". In communities across the state, except Pepperell Massachusetts, water and sewer bills are calculated based on actual water usage measured by the water meter. Some communities also bill a nominal "Base Charge" in addition to usage.

However, in Pepperell, the Board of Public Works uses a "Multi Unit" radical billing scheme which assesses multiple revenue raising "Base Charges" as a tax to each water meter as a function of property ownership information provided by the Board of Assessors.

As an example, a single building property owner using 8,000 cubic feet of water per year would be billed $1,552 annually for combined water and sewer services, or be paying at a rate of 19.4 cents per cubic foot.

But if that same building had 13 condominium units within it, it's bill would about triple by the addition of a "Multi Unit" tax of $2,781, raising the billing to $4,333 annually for combined water and sewer services and be paying at a rate 54.2 cents per cubic foot.

In spite of numerous appellate and supreme court cases in several states ruling against water and sewer charges that are just revenue raising taxes, three of the five board members, with two absent, in the public hearing held on June 30, 2022, decided to deliberately continue this obviously unfair, and likely illegal practice of two customers using exactly the same services and being billed radically different rates that clearly do not reflect "fair share" treatment.

Since the Board of Public Works lacks taxing authority, all additional "Base Charge" overbillings that are actually taxes need to be refunded to the affected customers.

Download the following documents:
Board of Public Works June 30th 2022 Presentation
Board of Public Works May 19th 2022 Presentation
Petitoner`s Request for Relief from Unfair Billing

Calculate your own Pepperell water bill:
Water & Sewer Quarterly Billing Calculator
For rates voted June 30, 2022 to be effective on August 1, 2022

"Pepperell is the only town in Massachusetts that use this radical Multi Unit billing scheme which essentially forces low use customers to pay more and large customers to pay less than their "fair share" of the costs to operate the water & sewer systems.



"Customer" is the party that hosts the water meter and receives a water and/or sewer bill for services provided.

"Usage" is the defined as the amount of water in cubic feet consumed by the Customer which is measured by the water meter installed at the Customer's location.

"Base Charge" is exclusively a revenue raising component of the Customer's bill with no Usage consumption credit provided.

"Unit" is a derived metric obtained from the Town Assessor's database. A Unit may be commercial, industrial, or residential in nature and may or may not be a billed Customer. A revenue raising Base Charge is assigned to every Unit.

"Multi Unit" is the property which hosts the water meter and responsible for paying a revenue raising Base Charge for all Units that receive water and/or sewer services beyond the water meter.

"Tier" is a level of consumption identifying a descrete range of Usage with a corresponding price in dollars per cubic foot relating to that range of Usage.

"Rate Table" is comprised of two or more Tiers in a series of rows placed one after the other and successively stating descrete ranges of Usage with corresponding prices in dollars per cubic foot relating to each range of Usage. The cost per cubic foot in each successive Tier is increased to promote conservation.

"Multi Unit Discount" is determined by multiplying the levels of consumption in each Tier of the Rate Table by the number of Units assigned to a Customer which effectively allows the Customer to avoid ascending to higher priced Tiers by expanding the Tier consumption ranges in the Rate Table, and as a result, does not promote conservation.