@rosborne979,
Most all cities or other municipalities have enforceable ordinances that require people to hook up to public water and sewage. (I hope the public health reasons are easily understood).
As far as electricity or cable tv, these arent as easily enforceable and self generated electricity MUST be hooked to the grid so that when power goes down, your "off the grid" power gets shut down also so that repirmen arent electrocuted by the power you are returning to the grid nd for which the power company must buy from you.
Weve gone partially solar PV with a hookup and a shut down relay for those times when all power is off due to storm or snow. It kind of screws with the whole reason to go off the grid( we needed a backup generator) but it makes some kind of weird sense.
As far as sewage and water, anyone who tries to go it alone when such services are reasonably available , are asking for trouble and sickness.(We define "reasonably available" as 300 feet from a nearest line to the BUILDING TO BE SERVICED (not, as is in Marylnd "300 feet to the edge of your proprty), which really can screw some farm steads.
When people just dump sewage into septic tnks , cesspools, and hve over used tile drains, this usually results in fetid pools of raw sewage in your backyard and then, if you have a well, you could see chunks of toilet paper in a glass of water.
I once accompanied a colleague who was consulted to provide a whole new water supply for a ruburb development that was about 3 miles from a town. About 75% of the sewage systems failed and (since this was a limestone area near Carlsisle Pa), peoples water systems showed clear signs of sewage in their drinking water. My friend dumped some different color plumbing dyes into the toilets of several houses and within 2 weeks, these dyes showed up in water systems.
One lady actually had water in which you could clearly see teeny chunks of toilet paper (limestone is very "channely" and actually does often hve "underground streams"
The result of this developments problems was to install a community water system that was eventually pid for and taken over by a large international water company , everyone benefited.
The woman hd to be told to STOP drinking her water (she hd several kids and a mother and husband who lived in the house with them)
Is this what we mean by "punishment for living off the grid??
Uually theres a big back story and a reson for insistance to "hook up".
I think were missing the back story