Water, Water Everywhere....wait a minute ...where did it go?

This is your public service drought allocation notice

In the mail today: A "drought advisory notice" from the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD).

After two consecutive dry winters, EBMUD has declared a water shortage emergency. Water use restrictions are in place and customers have been assigned individual water use allocations. This letter provides your individual water use allocation and describes how your bill might change during the drought.

EBMUD has cooked up a new rate structure aimed at encouraging conservation. First, the utility calculated a "baseline" figure by averaging out my household's consumption from 2004-2007. My "allocation" is the baseline minus ten percent. As of August 1st, if I exceed that allocation, I pay a drought surcharge, in addition to a 10 percent increase in water flow charges over the course of the drought.

I have no problem at all with this. I'm a believer that a sensible water policy would be to guarantee each household a set amount of cheap water, but then start charging higher and higher rates for consumption above and beyond that baseline. You want a green lawn and a swimming pool in the desert? Pay for it. EBMUD's plan is to use the income generated by the surcharges to make efficiency improvements to the water district that would increase conservation.

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/?last_story=/tech/htww/2008/08/07/water_rationing_in_berkeley/

A shortage of water is going to be one of the next biggest crises if not the biggest. Drought and misuse are beginning to cause

problems in almost every area of the country. If you thought no gas was a problem, wait until water is seriously rationed.

Call me Cassandra if you want to, but Google and look at the articles. It is coming.:yoiks: