Tiered Water Pricing Coming; A Foot Added to Falls Lake Last Night
While last night’s storm added more than a foot of water to Falls lake, today’s council meeting decidedly pushed the city toward a tiered pricing structure for Raleigh water services. The program is expected to start next spring- following upgrading of the billing software.
Additionally the council approved new water inspectors that would be visiting businesses and apartment complexes to insure low-flow faucets and shower-heads are being used. While the enforcement seems harsh it certainly seems necessary considering the current situation. Stage 2 restrictions have lead to a savings of about 3 million gallons a day out of a total of about 39 million a day. The situation is so dire that the council discussed public anxiety. The result was a comical exchange reported by N&O’s Bracken:
Koopman advocated sharing as much information as possible and preparing for the worst, while council member James West noted that focusing on doomsday scenarios could just heighten anxiety.
West’s “the glass-is-half-full” outlook prompted council member Thomas Crowder to note that Falls Lake is currently less than half full.
Crowder, witty retorts may be too much for someone worried about our citizen’s anxiety over a 100 day water supply. After all anxiety may lead folks to actually conserve more than required.
Raleigh hopes to have an agreement with Cary to buy water in an emergency situation by April first. This agrement would only allow for a minuscule, emergency source for water. The Army Corps of Engineers reduced the water released from the Falls Lake Dam by 50% on Monday, potentially extending the water supply by 30 to 40 days.
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150
03/05 08:34 PM
Glad to see the tiered pricing is finally coming. Not quite sure what took so long, really, but glad it’s done.
The public is used to paying very little for valuable resources (water, gasoline). Time for the price of both to increase. Without an economic incentive, we will continue to be wasteful, while lacking the incentive to conserve and find new and better alternatives.
A little pain now, a lot of benefit later. Time to look long term.
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jarobinson1
03/05 09:33 PM
Why don’t we have water treatment and reprocessing plants here? They were all over the place where I grew up (near Orlando, FL) and the water was alloted for non-residential uses like watering gold courses, fire hydrants, etc.
Maybe if we build a few, we can avoid this mess next time around!
Also, pricing water appropriately is an idea whose time came ages ago. Supply and demand, anyone? Get with it, Raleigh!
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jarobinson1
03/05 09:34 PM
Oops - that should be “golf” courses. Not “gold.” I need an editor!
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Betsy
03/06 04:28 PM
I call bullsh*t on Meeker’s proposal to inspect apartments to make sure that low-flow devices are being installed.
Apartment dwellers are not the persons who poured thousands and thousands of gallons onto the ground last summer. We are probably the lowest per capita consuming water users in the city because we don’t water lawns, which uses *orders of magnitude* more water than drinking and bathing.
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Rusty
03/07 03:04 AM
More of “too little & too late”. It’d be nice if it were paired with mandates for new rain catchment systems on new construction of a certain size & incentives encouraging water reclamation & non-irrigated developments.
But Raleigh being proactive would be a break from the norm.
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