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In a ruling with major implications for California's water conservation efforts during the historic drought, a state appeals court on Monday ruled that a tiered water rate structure used by the city of San Juan Capistrano to encourage saving was unconstitutional.
The Orange County city used a rate structure that charged customers who used small amounts of water a lower rate than customers who used larger amounts.
Follow Ups:
The town where I live has been doing the 'tier' thing for quite a while. I'm going to the water department Monday and get copies of my BILLS going back a YEAR to start. Than I'll go to the city council and ASK when my rebate check will be ready?
Since the answer will be 'never', I'll start organizing for a class action lawsuit.
Too much is never enough
On average, the water we use in our households is about 98 gallons a day,
says a U.S. Geological Survey. The industrial goods we use -- paper,
cotton, clothes -- that's about another 44 gallons a day. But it takes
more than 1,000 gallons of water a day per person to produce the food
(and drinks) in the average U.S. diet, according to several sources. More
than 53 gallons of water go into making 1 cup of orange juice, for example.
Just to get a sense of how much water goes into growing and processing
what we eat, here's a list of the water footprint for some common foods,
via National Geographic:A 1/3-pound burger requires 660 gallons of water.
Most of this water is for producing beef (see below).
1 pound of beef requires 1,799 gallons of water, which includes irrigation of the grains and grasses in feed, plus water for drinking and processing.
1 slice of bread requires 11 gallons of water. Most of this water is for producing wheat (see below).
1 pound of wheat requires 132 gallons of water.
1 gallon of beer requires 68 gallons of water, or 19.8 gallons of water for 1 cup. Most of that water is for growing barley (see below).
1 pound of barley requires 198 gallons of water.
1 gallon of wine requires 1,008 gallons of water (mostly for growing the grapes), or 63.4 gallons of water for 1 cup.
1 apple requires 18 gallons of water. It takes 59.4 gallons of water to produce 1 cup of apple juice.
1 orange requires 13 gallons of water. It takes 53.1 gallons of water for 1 cup of orange juice.
1 pound of chicken requires 468 gallons of water.
1 pound of pork requires 576 gallons of water.
1 pound of sheep requires 731 gallons of water.
1 pound of goat requires 127 gallons of water.
1 pound of rice requires 449 gallons of water.
1 pound of corn requires 108 gallons of water.
1 pound of soybeans requires 216 gallons of water.
1 pound of potatoes requires 119 gallons of water.
1 egg requires 53 gallons of water.
1 gallon of milk requires 880 gallons of water, or 54.9 gallons of water for 1 cup. That includes water for raising and grazing cattle, and bottling and processing.
1 pound of cheese requires 600 gallons of water. On average it requires 1.2 gallons of milk to make 1 pound of cheese.
1 pound of chocolate requires 3,170 gallons of water.
1 pound of refined sugar requires 198 gallons of water.
1 gallon of tea requires 128 gallons of water, or 7.9 gallons of water for 1 cup.
1 gallon of coffee requires 880 gallons of water, or 37 gallons of water for 1 cup. "If everyone in the world drank a cup of coffee each morning, it would 'cost' about 32 trillion gallons of water a year," National Geographic notes.
If you don't become the ocean, you'll be seasick every day.
—Leonard Cohen
How much water is required to grow coffee that we consume is of not much import when you can't flush the toilet.
might be time for a class action lawsuit.
We've had rate tiers here in Oceanside now for YEARS.
Potential savings? Or will they default to the 'higher rate'?
Too much is never enough
...they will just impose penalties for going over your allocation.
The constitution says they can't charge a rate higher than their cost, but says nothing about penalties.
Semantics yes.
Nothing is really apples and oranges. We used to have a half acre of grass football field in our old place and $600 water bills. When we bought our current home, we put mulch over the lawns and planted succulents and native plants. We still have an acre, but the water bill is less than half as much even with rate increases and a $75 charge just for being a customer.However, we also have a legal rental on the property which gets billed on one water bill. It has a separate gas and electric meter. The sewer fee gets doubled, but we get penalized for the renters which ups our water usage by at least 25% and we have no way to control their usage or shower times. Compared to our previous renter, it's probably nearly 40% of the usage.
-Rod
Edits: 04/22/15
...seems as fair as tiered rates.A penalty for each tier you exceed comes out about the same.
It's really the only way I know of to reduce usage.
About 60% of residential water usage is landscaping.
You can always pass the cost of the water on to your renters or raise the rent for the next ones.
Everybody has a reason and there is no way to make it fair to everyone.
In Rancho Santa Fe the water use is an average of 600 gallons per person per day - in San Francisco it's less than 50.
Edits: 04/22/15
I think you're missing the point. In my case, we're seen as one family unit for the purposes of the water bill. But we're not, it's two separate units, so to impose the same restrictions as you would to a typical single family home down the street is unfair. Other issues are the size of the property, an acre versus a 4,000 sq ft lot that is mostly covered by the house, driveway and patio along with previous conservation. We don't use much water for landscape and have already reduced that usage significantly. Others that waste water can easily cut 25%. We're already at a minimal level of usage.
> > > In Rancho Santa Fe the water use is an average of 600 gallons per person per day - in San Francisco it's less than 50.
Yeah, I believe that Rancho Santa Fe has the highest usage in the state. However, to compare 4 acre estates with a couple acres of orchard to a San Francisco home with a potted plant on the porch being its total landscape is a bit silly.
-Rod
...how else can you allocate water to discourage usage in a drought?
And why should agriculture be spared - it's 80% of the state's usage.
If water rates go up and almonds and cattle become too expensive for the state farmers, they will be produced somewhere else where there is more water. Business is full of risks.
Why is your situation any different than a household with 6 people living in it as opposed to one with 2?
ALL the Western States are in the midst of a water shortage. You'd have to move your Amond and Cow farm WAY East to get out of the 'zone'.
Too much is never enough
Hey Rod,Going OT, how's that rental property doing for you, tax-wise. The reason I ask is because the property next to us has gone through five, count 'em, FIVE, owners in the past 16 years, and I'm thinkin' about buying it and renting it out the next time it's up for sale. Single family dwelling.
:)
Edits: 04/22/15
For the purpose of taxes, it's a great write off. Between interest, insurance, property taxes, depreciation and maintenance costs, the rental income is largely offset and depending on maintenance costs, can even be a loss on paper. The real key is the cost of the property versus the rental income along with how much it will cost to update the place to get good rental income. Four or five years ago, you get easily buy rental properties with positive cash flow. Now, the prices have gone up enough where that's not really the case unless you invest a lot of money upfront on the purchase.
-Rod
Thanks.
I knew a guy who made his living on rental property (apartments), but he always complained that he wasn't making any money. I suspect that he was BS-ing me, 'cause he's drivin' the Mercedes, and I'm not.
:)
...unless you want to be a part-time handyman, rental and collection agent, you really need about a 24 unit apartment building so you can hire a management company to handle all of the upkeep, re-rentals and details.
Yeah, the "issues" can be a pain. Probably not so much the maintenance, but when the tenant is late on the rent, or when there is no tenant, that can be a bitch.My Dad bought a house for me to live in during college. I had a "roommate", and the upstairs was another "apartment" with a tenant. It all started out fine. The girl upstairs was hot and hot-to-trot, and my roommate was a nice regular guy. It went downhill when the girl moved out, and a not-so-upscale girl moved in. Then came her live-in loser boyfriend. Too much for this college dude to deal with while trying to get a f-ing degree.
:)
Edits: 04/23/15
as they can be punitive. Go one iota above allocation, and they want to charge you a huge penalty. Yes, that will certainly pass the courts. Legalism, a scourge of civilization.
No way a flat rate structure is going to survive.
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