CSD Water Plans

[Matthew]

I just read the article on rm.com about CSD's water pricing workshops. I think they are headed down the right path. Many of us (myself included) take our water supply for granted and I like the idea of a seasonal and tiered pricing system. I would also encourage them to continue to explore the purple pipe solutions. Well done guys!

[Wilbur]

yeah, what he said.

and I believe purple pipe is still in play, though I must admit I've lost track in the swirl of other things going on.

[Birdieman]

I don't think raising the price of water is an effective way to control usage. It would not be fair to the families with 5 or 6 members who have more showers to take before work and school or more laundry to do. Sac. County has used ways to curb water usage in drought years in the past. You could set mandated watering days, odd address houses would water on Mon., Weds. and Fri. and even address houses would be Tues., Thurs. and Sat. with no watering on Sundays.

[DBCooper]

Within reason the multi tiered water pricing makes the same sense as electricity. It should drive conservation and the purple pipe solution.

[Wilbur]

Originally Posted by birdieman

You could set mandated watering days, odd address houses would water on Mon., Weds. and Fri. and even address houses would be Tues., Thurs. and Sat. with no watering on Sundays.

Where does the manpower and sticktoitiveness come from to effectively enforce such restrictions?

[nana]

In the early 90's, we had one year of "voluntary" rationing--the odd number/even number houses every other day. We complied and the lawns didn't go all brown. For effective REAL enforcement, you'd need to start talking about "water police." Some communties in fact do that. rm.com has up the entire schedule of the pricing workshops; they roll over into purple pipe feasibility and run through early April. All but the last two are 8:30 a.m. sessions; the two final ones will be 7-10 p.m. to allow more resident participation. Our water source is finite and dpendent on winter snowpacks, etc. Seems rainfall is above last year and what is considered normal to date (info on back page of Bee's metro section every day).

[DBCooper]

Thats the problem with the whole even odd thing. Its far easier to let people use as much as they see fit and can afford and charge for excess. Its actually pretty easy to study in our community with a lot size averaging 1/4 acre.

[Wilbur]

Agreed. Some consumers will respond to price pressure, some won't.And if some want to use absurd amounts and just pay the absurd bills, which some will do, that's revenue which can help lay off the costs of other water saving strategies such as purple pipe implementation which CSD should also be pursuing (and thus far is!).

[Mama Mia]

If we are having problems with water supply now, where will the "new development" fit in to the community I remember the rationing in the 90's...!! I'm just wondering about the impact that the new houses will make, as they will of course need water also for their landscaping and family use..!! Where will we get it??

[Wilbur]

Originally Posted by Mama Mia

If we are having problems with water supply now, where will the "new development" fit in to the community I remember the rationing in the 90's...!! I'm just wondering about the impact that the new houses will make, as they will of course need water also for their landscaping and family use..!! Where will we get it??

We'll get it out of the lakes, into which we can only pump so much water out of the river and which can only hold so much when we're required to turn off the pumps in late Spring. Expanding the ability to treat drinking water and treat sewage is mostly just a matter of developer money and making sure they don't get off too cheap this time and leave us in another mess. The almost intractible problem is the lakes will only hold so much water, and the scary scenario is drought conditions which might one day prevent us from pumping even enough some winter to completely fill them before summer. This is why it is so important that CSD, and whomever else it takes, mandate purple pipe irrigation in new development and work out a strategy which will, in the course of plumbing new development, gets "purple" mains laid which one day, if need be, existing homes could start being tapped into.

Half of the water sucked out of the lake currently goes to lawns and landscapes. If we were all on purple pipe for our irrigation needs NOW, the lake would only be HALF as low as it is now. The lake-lowering effects of any additional rooftops can be cut in HALF by requiring, while it can be required and built preconstruction, that those new homes be provided by the developers with a purple pipe irrigation water delivery system.

This interacts wth to "conservation pricing." If the water crunch gets real serious, the price of drinking water (above what a normal household needs for indoor use) may rise very sharply, at one point reaching the tipping point where it becomes cost-effective to cut a trench, lay some pipe, and tap your irrigation system into a purple pipe main, using the perfectly good irrigation water which CSD currently pays money to get rid of. But to do that that main has to be around here somewhere. These leading-edge new developments are the prime opportunity to get that done, and if we4 have to kick down some community money to get some mains for eventual retrofit piggybacked onto that project, now is the time to do it. Otherwise it will be like that elusive additional bridge over the American River - if only they'd done it, local leaders say. while land was available and it was affordable. Now that bridge will never happen. WE can't make that mistake with respect to getting purple pipe started to save our drinking water supply and our lakes. The stage in our own developmental history to get it done is NOW.