Individualized Consumer Water Budgets:
Get the water you need—Need all the water you get!

CONCEPTS
1. A customer’s base water allocation is individually figured, based on
indoor per capita use + an allotment for landscaped area.

The inclusion of a landscape water allotment is an important component of the program, because it encourages efficiency both indoors and outdoors, and it recognizes the value of landscape.

2. A steeply tiered rate structure supports the individualized water budgets by relying on economics, rather than ordinances and policing, to encourage water efficiency by all customers. Water wasters—those who use in excess of their budgeted allocation—are sharply penalized by their bills. The base rate would be calculated to cover the water division’s fixed costs.

BENEFITS
· Steeply tiered rate structure with incentive pricing strongly encourages year-round efficiency, both indoors and out
· Fair to all consumers
--Everyone gets the water they need, at a fair rate
--Only wasted water is penalized
· Flexible; can address broad customer needs and fluctuating water supply situations
· Excess revenue from wasted water is returned to the city’s water division to fund further education and retrofit programs

DETAILS
Indoor allotment: The number of household residents could initially be determined through a questionnaire included with water bills. A conservative default number could be allotted to nonresponding households. Indoor gallon need per person per day is fairly consistent across the population, so a standard conservative number would be used there.

Landscape allotment: The landscape allocation is based on:
Irrigated landscape area of property X Evapotranspiration (“ET”) rate X Plant coefficient

EvapoTranspiration rate = water lost by evaporation. This varies with weather conditions.

Plant coefficient = the amount of replacement water needed for a plant’s survival. Turfgrass needs 80% to 100% of ET replacement to survive. In Santa Fe, we would use a lower plant coefficient to encourage water-conserving planting; say, 50% (this is the plant coefficient for trees, most shrubs, and for xeric plant material). If some water customers want turf grass or high water use plantings, they’d have to have LESS of them.

One distinct advantage to this system is that the ET calculation can be altered at anytime with minimal programming effort. In severe drought conditions, the calculation could be “tightened,” forcing landscape irrigation to be even more precise to stay within budget. Such a change would be fair (affecting all accounts with landscape calculations equally), virtually instantaneous, and would effectively encourage greater water efficiency.

SAMPLE RATE STRUCTURE

The steeply tiered rate structure encourages efficient use of water, rewards extreme conservation, and penalizes water abusers.

Commercial/industrial calculations would vary somewhat, based on historical patterns as well as above. One critical number can be determined with a high level of confidence, usage per employee per month. Most of Santa Fe’s commercial accounts would need only this factor (for separately metered buildings) or this factor + landscape area (for combined-use meters) to determine appropriate water budgets.

Fine tuning of the system would continue as customers respond to the changes and as time and experience teach us exactly how to make the system work best for all.

TO MAKE THE SYSTEM WORK
With the implementation of water budgets and an aggressive rate structure, some customers will inevitably incur penalties. Those customers will require support in the form of education, customer service contacts, materials, site visits/audits and possibly other means of assistance. As the water budget/rate structure motivates customers, they need information, recommendations, techniques and/or resources to help them save water and keep bills low

Besides public education, the city would need to invest in a computer system that would be able to track meters, calculate budgets, etc. There would also be some staffing education efforts needed from the beginning, and possible added staff at least in the beginning implementation process.

Several communities in California and Utah have already implemented Consumer Water Budgeting or have made the commitment to do so. Their experience can be invaluable in helping Santa Fe move in this direction.

Communities that have implemented Consumer Water Budgets have documented extremely high customer comprehension and satisfaction with the system. Communities with water budgets have also found that the revenues incurred from penalties, in combination with the savings realized from more efficient water use, have provided all of the money needed to cover the costs of education and implementation.

THE SANTA FE WATER COALITION
The mission of the Santa Fe Water Coalition is to promote efficient water use and water supply management practices in the city of SF and surrounding area.

We are an all-volunteer group without a central office or phone. However, for more information, you can contact us at either designwithnature@earthlink.net or luktrev@aol.com