What does your regulatory ethic think about this? Seems to me that a critical, shared resource such as ground water is appropriately regulated as Tucson has tried to do. Here's today's editorial and a news article from a few days ago.
Tucson, Arizona Sunday, 22 September 2002
Not a twinge
Some rich people have no conscience when it comes to conserving water.
Tony El Encanto neighborhood is shrouded in green, being a development conceived with Eastern notions of verdant lawns, trees, shrubs and flowers. None of that changes the fact that El Encanto lies in a desert where water is precious and the city water utility prices it accordingly. To avoid the tony water bills, some residents have decided to drill their own water wells.
El Encanto resident Timothy Torrington told Star reporter Joe Burchell that Tucson Water's rates pushed him to drill his own well. He said that "when your water bill is as much as a house payment should be, something's wrong."
That's true enough. It's a certain indication that too much water is being used - way too much water. A monthly bill of $1,000, which some El Encanto residents pay, ought to trigger some concern, being about 12 times the average Tucsonan's use.
It is fortunate that not everyone can afford to sink a well at a cost of as much as $30,000. But if you are an El Encanto resident, you can recoup your investment perhaps in 30 months. You can be on your merry way to sucking the aquifer of the Tucson Basin dry as a bone.
There are 2,600 private water wells plugged into what is a commonly shared groundwater supply. They do not pay Tucson Water's rates, which are priced high to promote conservation.
Owners of private wells continue to pump water evidently without a twinge of conscience or a care for conservation. For those who believe there ought to be law against such mischief, the city promoted such a bill in the Legislature only to see it defeated by property rights activists and development lobbyists.
In the mid- to later 1970s, Tucson faced severe water shortages. The City Council imposed high rate increases and tacked on an additional charge to pump water uphill to the Foothills, a lift charge. The city consumes great amounts of electricity to deliver water to the Foothills. When residents received their water bills, they were enraged. The fury provoked the city's first recall election and three council members were replaced. Another had resigned previous to the recall.
The new council rescinded the lift charge, but water rates continued to increase. Despite the political uproar, the only rational policy was to impose conservation through higher water rates. Tucsonans responded. Rock gardens and landscaping replaced lawns. The city shared a conservation ethic as never before.
Those days are obviously gone when today homeowners can arrogantly thumb their fat-cat noses at any suggestion of conservation and still avoid high rates. It is both galling and irresponsible and the Legislature should put a stop to it.
Tucson, Arizona Friday, 20 September 2002
Upscale homes sprouting own wells
By Joe Burchell
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Five homeowners in the El Encanto neighborhood have gotten state permits to drill their own wells in the last two months in an effort to combat rising city water rates.
State law allows property owners to drill a well on their own property capable of pumping up to 35 gallons a minute for their own use.
Five other property owners in the upscale Midtown neighborhood have already had well permits approved by the Arizona Department of Water Resources over the past 20 years. There are more than 2,600 private well permits spread across metropolitan Tucson, department records show.
El Encanto resident Timothy Torrington said excessive city water rate increases pushed him into installing his own well because in the long run it's cheaper than the monthly city water bill.
Torrington said he didn't want to comment on how much his bill was, but noted "when your water bill is as much as a house payment should be, something's wrong."
A representative of Farwest Pump Co., which is installing all five new wells in El Encanto, said the cost for a well and a new water system could go as high as $30,000.
Over the last few years, city water rate increases have targeted high-volume water users with larger-than-average price hikes in an effort to discourage use.
Tucson Water spokesman Mitch Basefsky said in an "Eastern style" neighborhood like El Encanto, where you might find lots of lawns, big trees, ornamental plants, pools and ponds, typical water bills could run as high as $500 a month, and some customers pay $1,000 a month or more.
The city utility currently charges $1.11 per 100-cubic-foot unit of water (776 gallons) for each of the first 15 units, which covers the average residential user, and even those slightly above average.
But the price jumps to $3.34 per unit for 16 through 30 units; $4.58 per unit for the 31st through the 45th units; and $6.60 a unit for everything above that.
Torrington said the rates punish homeowners in subdivisions like El Encanto, where lots are about an acre.
"Some of us choose not to let our property go completely back to nature," said Torrington, who noted that 90 percent of his property is desert.
But even that needs watering during drought conditions such as what hit Tucson this summer.
Oscar Morales, another El Encanto resident, said he isn't putting in his own well, but he would if he could afford one because city water rates have become excessive.
Tucson Water Director David Modeer said he knows about the well permits and believes they hurt efforts to manage and conserve the ground water supply, but there's nothing the city can do about them.
He said the city appealed to the Legislature last session to change the law that allows any property owner to get a well permit. But the bill never made it out of committee after a lobbying effort by property rights activists and real estate and development lobbyists.
Homeowners who apply for their own well permits are typically "large water users," Modeer said. "This allows them to use as much water as they want for their big lawns and vegetation. It defeats the whole purpose of water conservation."
Because of the high cost of putting in a well, he said, it's an option for the most part only available to those with higher incomes.
"It allows them to avoid the long-term cost of water or having to manage the water they use," he said.
Cindy Shimokusu, head of the state Water Resources office in Tucson, agreed the growing number of private well permits is a concern, but there is little the department can do other than approve the request.
"From a water management perspective, the department would rather have people served by a provider who has an assured water supply so replenishment is assured," she said, because commercial water providers like the city are required to provide for recharging as much water as they draw out of the aquifer. |
