At the AWWA’s
training seminar Water Demand and Conservation Management: Planning, Policy,
and Rates in April of 2007, participants were encouraged to speak up about
the issues and problems they faced.
I will never forget the frustrations described by the water utility
manager of an affluent New England community. He told us all about his utilities’ many
failures: the pleas for conservation that fell on deaf ears, the tiered-rate
schemes that did nothing to diminish demand. He blamed his lack of success – in part
– on the wealth of his customers; a majority of which were ready, willing, and
able to use as much water as they needed and pay whatever price charged just to
keep their lawns green.
Recently, my
local online newspaper reported on a similar issue. According to Rob
Kuznia, Noozhawk Staff Writer, two of Santa Barbara County’s high-end
communities –
Hope Ranch and Montecito – hit record water usage amounts for 2007.(Click Here to read more.) County officials expect demand to
continue to increase through 2008, just in time for reductions in water supplied
to them by California’s State Water project.
Increasing
demand and decreasing supply obviously puts both water districts in a tight
spot, and it was their customers who put them there. In the 1990s, residents of neighbouring
Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria all voted to reject the State Water
project in favour of living within their means from a water resources
standpoint. Voters in the Hope
Ranch (serviced by the La Cumbre water district) and Montecito took a different
tack, choosing instead to join the State Water Project in the hopes of tapping
an unlimited water supply. This
decision may have eased worries in the short term, but undoubtedly it led to the
situation both districts are now facing: the illusion of unlimited water goading
demand and codifying usage that would be considered extraordinary in any other
context.
In
fact, while the city of Santa Barbara receives most of its water from the local
reservoirs and aquifers, the Montecito district receives about 22% of its water
from the state water project. La
Cumbre is even worse off, with 60% of its water coming from the State.
What
I find most shocking is that, so far, neither district is using a tiered-rate
system. As a result, the big water
users pay flat rates (some of the cheapest in the country) and waste with
impunity – with a majority of their water going to landscaping. It’s also important to note that both
districts use two to three times the amount of water consumed by the rest of
Santa Barbara County’s residents, yet they pay bargain basement prices to keep
their lawns green while yards across the country wither and die (many to be
reborn through smart irrigation and xeriscaping…but that’s a story for another
time).
Apparently,
both districts are considering adopting a tiered-rate system similar to the one
employed by the city of Santa Barbara – in which case customers will pay for
their water use based on a scale that raises the price per unit once
higher-usage threshold has been hit.
It’s your basic, the more you use the more you pay, scheme, that will –
hopefully – catch the attention of the folks writing the checks. In light of how much water is being used
by these communities, there’s no doubt a tiered-rate scheme will help raise
revenue for the La Cumbre and Montecito water districts. But one has to wonder; when money is no
object will high rates do enough to encourage conservation?