Water Rate Increase Hitting Charlotte Residents Hard (customers conserving too much during drought)

Water Rate Increase Hitting Charlotte Residents Hard
UPDATED: 6:26 pm EDT April 8, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Living in Mecklenburg County just got more expensive. People have been conserving so much; the utilities department now has a $20 million shortfall.

City Council approved a 15 percent rate hike Monday night. That's not the only bill you have worry about.

Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas are also asking for more money. As a single mother of three teenagers, Becky Kosinski is brought to tears over the news.

"Oh, I just take it one day at a time, and just hope everything works out," she said.

Here's what customers could be facing in the fall: CMUD bills will increase on average $6 per month.

But the water department says its bill may decrease if the drought lets up even more. Starting in July, the 15 percent increase drops to 14 percent. Maeneen Klein says the rest depends on the weather after July.

"We will reassess our situation further into the new fiscal year and see if other movements are possible," she said.

News of higher monthly bills, on top of skyrocketing gasoline prices, is a real struggle for many people.

“It’s real tough. I 'm telling you I'm about to starve," said Norman Smith after pumping gas in northwest Charlotte.

But there is some good news. Trash disposals are no longer banned in Raleigh! Time to partay!

Panel reverses garbage disposal ban
Updated: 04/09/2008 07:25 AM
By: Amy Thorpe

RALEIGH -- A Raleigh City Council committee voted unanimously Tuesday to dispose of the city's garbage disposal ban. Council members met opposition from citizens, builders and disposal manufacturers when they approved the ban last month.

This comes as a relief for Lee Rothstein and his customers at Kitchen and Bath Galleries in Cary. Many of his customers are in Raleigh.

"A lot of them would be quite upset because they've always had one and they use it, and use it properly,” he said.

Rothstein designs kitchens for new and remodeled homes. A constant request from customers is installing at least one disposal in their kitchen.

The ban went into effect March 10 and prohibited the installation of new disposals and the repair of broken ones.

"It makes people angry because they want to able to grind up their food waste rather than put it in a garbage can which then smells,” said Rothstein.

Anger from people in Raleigh is why council members reconsidered the ban.

“When people are raising questions and you really feel like you've gotten off on the wrong foot, the right thing to do is to say you got off on the wrong foot. That's what the council is trying to do here,” said Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker.

City leaders originally approved the ban because of environmental concerns about food and grease down the drain causing sewer overflow.

"We're telling a customer they can't pour their grease down the drain yet the food they cook in the grease ... goes down the drain and to the same place,” said Dale Crisp with Raleigh Public Utilities. His department is in favor of the disposal ban.

"The problem at hand is pouring grease down into the system and not the disposal of food particles,” said Rothstein.

So as city leaders lift the ban on disposals, they say they'll work harder to make sure the public knows that putting grease down the drain damages the city's sewer system.

According to Raleigh Public Utilities, in 2007, the city had 48 sanitary sewer overflows. Twenty-one of them were caused by grease blockage and 12 of those were solely from sewer sheds in residential areas.

The full City Council will officially vote to reverse the ban at their meeting next Tuesday. They will also discuss modifications to the Sanitary Sewer Ordinance before referring to City Public Affairs to further public awareness of the damage of pouring grease down the drain.

http://news14.com/content/local_news/triangle/594656/panel-reverses-garbage-disposal-ban/Default.aspx

up to an extra $156 on average, a year?

Well, when everything else is climbing too, it adds up.

Wonder, though, how they'd like it up in the north - In 15 years, my prop taxes have tripled, my fuel bill has quadrupled = from $500 to $2,000 - then we've all got the gas prices, which are driving up the prices of everything else since everything we buy is trucked....

Actually, I can't beg, steal or borrow $2,000 for fuel oil - so I've had help taking down storm damaged trees and have burned wood most the winter - not easy for an old lady. But we Mainer's are stubborn.

Back when Carter pulled this same cr*p before the election of ‘80 (the gas “crisis” - brought on by the Gov’t closing down working wells) folk in Maine cleaned out/relined the old chimneys and started burning wood, poking a finger in the eye of the oil/gov’t Barons. So the state tried to ban all but new, outrageously expensive wood stoves. they got their hat handed to them - and they haven't tried that again...and a lot of Mainers have kept right on burning wood.

Same thing happened in Seattle in the mid 1970’s.

Quite a bit of the region's power is generated by hydroelectric dams and a good heavy snow pack in the mountains is necessary to fill the dam reservoirs in the spring to generate electricity. In the winter of 1976-1977 (IIRC), the snowfall was light and this meant less snow melt in the reservoirs come spring. So the power company launched a conservation campaign encouraging citizens to cut back on usage to help get the region through until the rains returned in the fall.

(The only thing making Seattle bearable weather-wise is the usually absolutely beautiful, mostly DRY and SUNNY weather April to October; the rest of the time, bring your gills.)

Anyway, the community took up the challenge and they even used the SAFECO building in the university district (Go Huskies!)to act like a giant barometer of how the conservation efforts were going. Since the building was visible from a good bit of the city, the more floors that were lit up, the better the community was doing in conserving electricity. So everybody pitched in and the community met the conservation targets.

Our reward, the same as Charlotte's: a request from the power company to raise the rates. Seems the Brainiacs in accounting and operations had forgotten to take into account the decrease in revenues that would be caused by all that conservation. Revenues generated through normal use of cheap-to-produce hydroelectric power created a surplus needed to buy expensive fuel for generating needed power during the winter months. Compelled by the necessity of the situation, the rate increase was approved by the utilities control board.

Can't recall if anyone lost their job over this SNAFU, but it sure killed the celebratory spirit of the community.

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