Chicago

The average water bill is $40. It is cheaper than housing and transportation costs which is $1,688 and $804 respectively. Since 2008 the water bill has increased by 79%. One reason the water bill may have gone up is because of the amount of maintenance that the city has to do to maintain the infrastructure. I know where I live there are still water mains from the early 1900's that have just been replaced. The cost of maintaining these older structures has only grown as they have gotten older because the demand has risen. Additionally, because the city only has one sewer system for the houses and the street run off this has created problems with the heavier rain storms we have had in the past years. In the past couple years they have been finishing some of their Deep Tunnel projects which costs a lot of money too. The water bill has out paced the growth in income which has only increased 27% which is small compared to the 79% growth of the water bill. A low-income household needs to work 11 hours to pay their water bill.