Lovely: The price of water in the U.S. (especially Austin) is skyrocketing

[washparkhorn 9939]

Getting thirsty - literally. 

Good thread all. 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

20 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

I have an app called Dropcountr that connects to COA Utilities and keeps track of my household usage.  It's pretty cool and simple and a good way to keep track of your personal use.  I average right around 2000 gallons/month.  There's only 2 of us, so our usage is way below "similar" households.

Maybe you should consider bathing more ?

[Biff Tannen 45665]

55 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Maybe you should consider bathing more ?

It's quarantine baby!

[Born to Run 6569]

Yep, I've been saying this for a while. I wouldn't make them illegal, but I would jack up the price of water for heavy users. Something like the first x number of gallons a family or business uses per month would be cheap (or hell even free for the minimum number of gallons needed to live). Then have a tier pricing plan. The next y number of gallons is a little more expensive, then on and on. If you want to water your grass every day, it's going to cost you.

Water Districts 17 and 18 in West Austin do just that. My new neighbor went crazy watering the yard when they first moved in and had a $500 water bill.

I'm fine with it. My bill is usually about $60 a month and I carefully use irrigation.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

4 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

It's quarantine baby!

Heheheheheh, I didn't shave for like 3 weeks and am getting my first hair cut since March in an hour..... I have taken a couple showers.....

[Brisketexan 105082]

22 hours ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

Yep, I've been saying this for a while. I wouldn't make them illegal, but I would jack up the price of water for heavy users. Something like the first x number of gallons a family or business uses per month would be cheap (or hell even free for the minimum number of gallons needed to live). Then have a tier pricing plan. The next y number of gallons is a little more expensive, then on and on. If you want to water your grass every day, it's going to cost you.

A lot of utilities do that - it's called an "inclining block rate."  And it's absolutely a conservation incentive, on the individual user basis.  On a wholesale basis, there are a lot of other factors that go into encouraging conservation, but on the individual basis, the inclining block rate is absolutely a tool.

And the other thing is that water planning, infrastructure, and costs, aren't a year-to-year thing.  The planning and project curves are typically on a 20-50 year horizon, which involves a lot of planning and population/usage projections.  Layer that in with deferred maintenance and construction, and your cost for water today is only partially connected with the actual cost to get that water to you today.  Which makes sense -- you can't exactly shop for your water supply.  The pipes that go to the meter at your house are owned by a single utility, and always will be (even if it's a private utility, they will just transfer from one owner to another).

The state water plan, for various regions, is available online.  It really is a fascinating read.

[Mighty fine 169]

Yep. And the population projections are not only critical for estimating water needs, but also making sure utilities don't develop supplies too quickly and find yourself at the short end of the stick with either debt service or take- or-pay contract obligations. The latter topic has become a growing concern more recently with the proliferation of utility partnerships

[troph 24781]

Our new place has a for profit, privately owned water company out in Western Travis, just outside of Lakeway. Not a MUD an actual privately held run for profit water company. Spooked the heck out of me. Then we found out the base charge per month before sending you a drop of water is $250/mo. Yeah, no. We designed a 45,000 gallon cistern under the house and won’t use them at all, not even a connection just in case. We’ll fill it once with a water truck and then let the rainwater collection do the rest.