Water's Back On, But It'll Cost More Than Before |
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April 12, 2008 From Huntersville Herald By Heather Sommersville On the heels of healthy spring rainfalls that eased immediate water conservation pressures and the swelling urgency for economic relief for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities department, water restrictions have been amended to allow once-weekly irrigation. Citizens can go ahead and turn their sprinklers on again. But don't leave them on too long, because you'll be paying more for your water. Water restrictions have eased just as water rates have increased. The former will hopefully help grow some local lawns and plants. The latter is an attempt to grow -- maybe re-grow is a better term -- CMU's budget shortfall. The countywide utility has been hit as hard as anyone by the recent drought. In what could be described as a vicious (water) cycle, CMU encouraged county residents to use less water for the past six months and is now punishing them for their good deeds, which hurt the utility's bottom line. On Monday, Charlotte City Council approved CMU's water rate adjustment to begin May 1, and, although it will drop some come July, county residents can expect to their water bills increase by an average of $6 per month. According to CMU officials. That will, indeed, improve CMU's financial picture. A reduction in watering restrictions may help, too. Residents can now water lawns one day a week (see information this page). In a related development, Duke Power is permitting lakeside residents to pump water from its hyrdo-system lakes, including Lake Norman, for use in irrigation. But members of the N.C. Green Industry Council (GIC) say there's a better solution available. Green leaders are backing an alternative plan they say will conserve water and keep revenue flowing better than CMU's plan. GIC leaders have presented local and state lawmakers with a water-rate system that goes beyond simply altering water prices and institutes individual water allocation, a system greenies say will sustain both the green industry and CMU through future droughts and keep irrigation out of the clutches of water restrictions. As it turns out, CMU revenue and green industry revenue are more co-dependent than anyone initially thought. CMU's revenues are down about $16 million for fiscal year 2008 because of the reduction in water use that was the inevitable fallout of seven months of water restrictions. CMU pushed water conservation education onto consumers so effectively, it appears, that now consumers aren't using enough water to keep the utility company, well, afloat. Erin Culbert, CMU Environmental Outreach Coordinator, says since landscape irrigation came to a halt last September, the average single-family residential customer has reduced water consumption by 1,500 gallons a month and, as a result, is paying about $10 a month less. CMU has issued a hiring freeze and has reduced energy costs, but a rate increase, officials there say, is the only means to remedy the deficit. However, CMU's revenue shortage pales when compared to what the state's $8.6 billion green industry -- growers, garden centers, landscape contractors, landscape management crews, irrigation contractors, arborists, landscape designers, sod producers and suppliers and Christmas tree growers -- have suffered through. Unemployment and profit loss have plagued the industry during the past year. Buddy Murrow, manager of Shepherd's Landscape Supply in Huntersville and a green coalition leader, says before CMU announced last week that weekly watering would be allowed, 75 percent of the state's green business owners were concerned they wouldn't be able to sustain their payroll. The watering ban hurts the green industry not because it loses inventory -- it doesn't since watering at nurseries is not banned -- but because its customers won't buy plants or seed if they know they won't be allowed to water at their homes and businesses. The cure for their collective woes, say Murrow and other GIC leaders, is a system borrowed from the Irvine Ranch Water District in Orange County, Calif. It's been successfully implemented in arid communities across California and Colorado. "They (CMU) will always be in a decline, and always have to increase rates," says Murrow. "I think (Irvine's system) benefits not only the green industry, but the community as a whole, because it stresses water efficiency, not just conservation. We can't continue to build new reservoirs." Self-policing Tom Ash, director of conservation at WeatherTrak, a California water management provider, helped create and implement Irvine Ranch's water rate system 17 years ago, following a six-year drought in southern California. Ash says the system, which is based on allocating water based on what should be needed to maintain their landscapes and lifestyles, respects both customer, the environment, and the local water agency's needs while simultaneously stressing the importance of water efficiency. Essentially, the system puts the onus on residents to find creative ways to conserve water by making it too expensive not to do so. "The goal is not to take away water that people need, but to make sure they are efficient with it," says Ash. Residences in the Irvine Ranch district are each assigned a water allocation derived from the number of the home's inhabitants, the residential landscape area and the actual daily weather in the community. For example, a family of four, living on Irvine's typical third-of-an-acre lot, would be allotted 12 ccfs of water (one ccf equals 748 gallons) per month for indoor water use, and an additional two to seven ccfs for outdoor use. The outdoor allocation number varies according to the temperature and conditions outdoors, which are tracked daily from three weather stations in Irvine and fed into a computer program that adjusts residents' water allocations accordingly. From these three factors a resident's total monthly allocation is derived. Irvine Ranch follows a tiered rate system a bit more extensive than CMU's, and water prices start low but jump quickly. Residents who use less than their allocation are rewarded with cheap water rates -- about two-thirds of what CMU charges -- but those who grossly exceed their allocation face atrociously high water bills at the end of the month. Fiona Sanchez of Irvine Ranch Water District says 80 percent of their customers stay below their allocation, because the allocation number is so generous. For comparison's sake, the average CMU customer uses six ccfs per month, half the base allocation in Irvine. Few residents, says Sanchez, care to been seen as abusive by exceeding their allotment. Irvine Ranch's method for pulling in revenue, and, says Ash, the method through which CMU could stabilize its own, is by covering its costs independently of selling water through charging certain fixed operational fees. Irvine residents pay $7.50 per month regardless of the amount of water they use to cover the costs of water treatment, operations and personnel, as well as base rate for sewer that runs $13.65. This income is guaranteed for Irvine Ranch Water District, so there is no reliance on customer water usage for revenue. Any excess balance is put into water quality, conservation and education program. Beyond a $1.80 fee to cover the cost of mailing, CMU has no fixed rates factored into its bills. Culbert says working too many fixed charges into water bills takes the equitability out of water rates, because customer use varies. That may be, but Irvine's system has worked. Irvine Ranch Water District has recorded seven or fewer inches of annual rainfall in the last few years, yet, says Sanchez, no water restrictions have been implemented, nor have rates been increased because of a revenue shortfall for at least eight years. In contrast to Irvine Ranch, Duke Energy recorded 28 inches of rainfall in 2007 in its service area. Murrow says Irvine's water allocation system recognizes the importance of landscaping, economically and environmentally, in a way that CMU fails to do so. Irvine's allocation system encourages residents to build year-round water efficiency into their lifestyles. Sanchez says that Irvine residential indoor water use dropped 12 percent and residents have reduced landscape watering by more than half, and yet green industry profits in the state are up. As residents have learned how to irrigate efficiently and have become more climate appropriate in their landscaping choices, they are buying more ground cover for their yards. "The green industry really likes us," says Sanchez. "They cite us as an example for the state." The Irvine Ranch solution sounds nirvanic, but it may just not be practical in Mecklenburg County or North Carolina. The task of compiling public data on property size and inhabitants, installing and maintaining the weather stations and computer systems (maintenance of three stations runs Irvine Ranch around $9,000 a year) would require manpower and a total budget overhaul that CMU just isn't prepared to offer. Culbert says the water-rate system CMU employs is one that has been tapered to fit the community and the environment in Mecklenburg County. CMU's new rate increase and steeper inflation in its rate tier system will create a more stable revenue flow, Culbert says, and enable it to weather future droughts without continuously raising rates. "It would be not be a real practical solution for our community," says Culbert. "It would be unlikely for us to switch completely the type of rate structure we have." |
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