Posted on 07/20/2007 6:23:46 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Making water more expensive for a household once it has used more than the normal share is an idea that is gaining some support in Madison.
Water rate tiers that charge more once a threshold is crossed are already in place in cities such as Waukesha, and about 50 Madison residents who met Thursday with Madison Water Utility officials on the east side overwhelmingly favored the move as a way to encourage conservation.
Since May, Waukesha has been phasing in incentive-based rates to charge residential customers a higher price as their usage climbs. Most customers in Waukesha pay $5.23 per 1,000 gallons up to 120,000 gallons per year but the price per 1,000 gallons can climb twice to $5.98 for 160,000 gallons and over.
By comparison, Madison charges $2.86 for using 1,000 gallons of water. The average house in Madison uses 51,612 gallons per year.
Conservation practices have drawn attention as the Madison Water Utility prepares to permanently shut down Well No. 3 on the near east side because of the well's high levels of manganese and other problems.
In the session, mediated by Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway, community members also had more basic suggestions, recommending that the Madison Water Utility include customers' usage in gallons on their bill, instead of "Ccf." One Ccf -- or 100 cubic feet -- is roughly 748 gallons. Attendees also suggested that getting a monthly bill, instead of the current semi-annual bill, would help them keep better track of their usage.
Water Utility finance manager Robin Piper said he was receptive to those ideas.
"You can't really think about conservation if you get a bill every six months because you don't know how what you're doing today -- if that's affecting your bill when you get it six months from now," he said. "If you had a monthly bill you could say, I'm going to try five-minute showers this months and see what it means.'"
Piper also said that before approving an incentive-based rate structure, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin has signaled that it wants to see a more comprehensive plan to address conservation, perhaps including ideas on how to better use gray water, which is basically the used water that drains from sinks. Piper said that he was glad to get the ball rolling with fresh ideas from the community, and added that he hopes to see some significant changes by early next year.
Rhodes-Conway said in an interview after the meeting that conservation is well "on the radar screen" of the water utility.
"It's something that I know they are starting to talk about and hopefully we'll see a lot more out of them," she said. "I'm really encouraged that the Water Board is already thinking about a conservation rate structure. That would be a great step forward I think for us and I'm really interested in making sure that we get that right."
In addition to billing and policy issues, attendees also voiced concerns about water infiltration back down into the aquifer.
Development in the Madison area and more specifically the laying down of concrete for parking lots and driveways has decreased the amount of area where rainwater can filter back through the soil down into the ground. The east side's industrial history also raises some questions as to whether water filtering through that soil might be contaminating ground water.
Joel Creswell, a graduate student at UW-Madison who studies water pollution and lives on the near east side, suggested that developers should pay for the necessary infrastructure so that water can better filter back to the aquifer.
After the meeting, Creswell said he felt a lot of good ideas were presented, but that now it's about the execution.
"It's kind of a no-brainer, in a way," he said. "It's like, Do you want to conserve water, do you want to protect water quality?' nobody says no to that. It's just an issue of figuring out what the most efficient ways are to do it."
it’s a good way of punishing large households and families, too.
TOTAL Nanny State Ping! Every d@mn day the Socialists in ‘The People’s Republik of Madistan’ find another way to frog-march us into hi-rise, shoe-box-sized apartments in the inner city where our every action is monitored “for the Common Good.”
See my Post #3. You get it! :)
unfortunately, I’m also living it with a family of six, but I’m also just in the grasp of a cold-hearted monopoly capitalist.
What kind of money are they talking about? The city of Eureka Ca just replaced all the meters with electronic meters that are read by waving a wand over the box. Some day they will read them remotely. Water is very expensive here even though we have a lot of rain during the winter months and a great impound and collection system.
Your eyes will bleed but it's worth the long read.
Water A shared Responsibility the united nations world water development report
It's in a html version. I avoid pdf whenever possible.
We love our well.
This will interest you. Our government hard at work to squeeze everything from us they can.
Government Meters On Private Water Wells Coming Paying Tax On Water You Already Own
(I’m not b*tchin’ at you...I’m just b*tchin’!)
It’s not about the money. It’s the “different prices for different types of families” that I object to. It’s the monitoring of my actions by the city. (Well, not MINE, but the clueless minions that are stupid enough to live within the City Limits.)
Thank GOD for my 300’ well filled with crisp, clean, country water!
And water SHOULD be expensive in CA. You all live in a freakin’ DESERT that shouldn’t be inhabitable by anything but tumbleweeds and lizards, were it not for piped in water. ;)
But...we have FIVE Great Lakes around us. They should be GIVING us free water...just like they should be GIVING you free electricity from solar panels and great sunshine all year long.
Every place has it’s natural resources, waterways, reasons for being inhabited. You should see the Arrowheads I’ve found at the pond on my folks’ property. The Indians knew to live near a fresh water supply, hundreds of years ago. So did Cavemen. And the Middle Easterners were lucky enough to be born over a seemingly endless supply of crude oil; life ain’t necessarily FAIR, but it is what it is.
The Socialists just want us under their thumb in EVERY aspect of our daily lives!
Pretty soon...no shower for YOU unless you rinse your hair in the filthy dishwater you just let go down the drain! No growing your own food because it takes WATER if it doesn’t rain enough...and anyway you should be BUYING your food from co-ops run by smelly hippies so the STATE can tax you in yet another way. No toilet that actually FLUSHES your waste away...you’ll need to compost your own poop. And remember...only ONE SQUARE of TP per void, LOL!
Sounds ridiculous? Hang around for another ten years...
(And again, I’m NOT b*tchin’ at you...I’m just b*tchin’!)
“I avoid pdf whenever possible.”
Thank you! Bookmarked. I NEVER read pdf stuff. Drives me nuts. ;)
We’ve had this in Florida for some years. Originally introduced using the excuse of drought, it has persisted non-stop since introduced through periods of repeated hurricanes and almost universal flooding. The reality is that it was introduced to produce more revenue for Government and it will never go away.
The “tier” structure is such that to pay “base” rates you can’t use more water than a single person would use while living in a 900 sq/ft apartment. After that 1st tier, the rates climb exponentially. It’s not unusual for owners of modest sized homes to pay an average of $200/month for water.
There is no end to the greed of Government.
I NEVER read pdf stuff. Drives me nuts.;)
Drives me nuts as well. I wish everything was html. :)
Nanny State Ping! (Pinch-hitting for Gabz.)
“It’s not unusual for owners of modest sized homes to pay an average of $200/month for water.”
Yikes! Granted, I have to pay additional electric to use the well pump, but still. That cost is obscene!
“You didn’t answer my question...”
They won’t tell us, yet. They have to implement their little “tiered plan” then they’ll spring the cost on everyone. That’s how it works in a Socialist Utopia. You tax the rich and redistribute the wealth to the “poor.” However, don’t the poor families generally have more kids? Won’t it all just even out in the long run anyway when you have a Mama and six kids living in an apartment using water, versus a Mom, Dad and two kids living in a McMansion using water? Will a large home REALLY use more water than someone in subsidized housing that hasn’t clue ONE about “conserving” on anything? Do you think the Landlords will pick up this cost out of the goodness of their hearts? LOL! Yeah. Sure.
“By comparison, Madison charges $2.86 for using 1,000 gallons of water. The average house in Madison uses 51,612 gallons per year.”
The average Madisonian pays $560.00 a year or so for water now. Anyone that uses more will be paying more. But anyone that uses LESS will not get a refund, nor even a pat on the back from anyone on the council.
Then some pencil pushing City Manager convinced the council there was gold in that thar water and began charging for every drop. They make lots of money and 90% of the lawns dry up each summer. I have had water bills near $400 when I forgot to turn a sprinkler off over night. I now have mechanical timers on every faucet and I use a lot of drip irrigation also.
Keep in mind that Calif is 1200 miles from the Oregon border to the Mexico border and there are many climate zones.That is equal to about 10 eastern seaboard states. Humboldt and Del Norte counties are in the far north west corner. This is where the Redwoods grow in a near rain forest and there are 6 rivers that drain this region...
I smell rats. Normally, household water use is only a fraction of industrial/commercial and agricultural use.
But unethical politicians always emphasize household conservation, not to save water, but to “raise awareness”, which they consider just as, if not more, important.
It is a scummy trick, done by scummy people. Much like the low water use toilets that don’t work, but are now mandated by federal law. The amount of water saved is incidental, compared to other use.
In this case, local people should try and lay hands on actual water use in the area, and if industrial/commercial use and agricultural use are sky high compared to residential use, they should raise a ruckus in protest.
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