Water rates to increase in Oklahoma City

[venture]

So you want to try and force people to live on smaller lots. Gotcha

Who is forcing people? I don't have a 10,000 sq ft house because I couldn't afford the utilities and property taxes. I have a nice house and yard that is with in my means. If someone wants to have a huge yard that uses a lot of water, why shouldn't they pay more? They could also just get a well if they don't like it. Maybe a better solution would be to steal an idea from OG&E and the SmartHours thing, but have it be seasonal and based on drought conditions and water supply. I would think it also needs to be combined with dual meters (one for inside use and the other for outside). If people opt for the two meters, then their inside usage is exempt from the season rate adjustments.

[Zuplar]

For what it's worth I have over an acre and only ever hand water trees a such. If we get a
Moderate amount of rain my yard still looks great due to properly taking care of it. I think the big problem is people straight up are wasteful.

[Plutonic Panda]

Who is forcing people? I don't have a 10,000 sq ft house because I couldn't afford the utilities and property taxes. I have a nice house and yard that is with in my means. If someone wants to have a huge yard that uses a lot of water, why shouldn't they pay more? They could also just get a well if they don't like it. Maybe a better solution would be to steal an idea from OG&E and the SmartHours thing, but have it be seasonal and based on drought conditions and water supply. I would think it also needs to be combined with dual meters (one for inside use and the other for outside). If people opt for the two meters, then their inside usage is exempt from the season rate adjustments.

Venture, I agree with you. I have become very conservative of my water usage and even shelled out some good money that I earned to place a rain barrel system under my deck and this isn't even my house, it's my fathers. I'm moving into my own place at the end of this month finally, but still. I also plan to do major upgrades to insure I save as much water as possible.

But when you make a statement like this "The market will then favor houses with smaller lots.", that tells me you want to manipulate the market and shows that if you could, you would want to prevent people from owning large yards.

I do not believe in that. You let the city handle it and make it fair. It's already been stated on here that lawn watering makes up a minuscule amount of the overall national water usage.

For your comment of them paying more, they already are. Perhaps I'm wrong here, but don't you have to pay more property taxes the bigger you lot size is?

The amount of water waste I see in Edmond is beyond sickening. The whole goddamn city becomes a city with rivers flowing down its streets at night whether it is raining or not. I have been meaning to film it, but need a better camera. My neighborhood alone has multiple heads that just shoot up into the air and I have even replaced those head with my own money but they keep getting broken and I can't afford to continue doing that.

[ljbab728]

[QUOTE=Plutonic Panda;820101]Venture, I agree with you. I have become very conservative of my water usage and even shelled out some good money that I earned to place a rain barrel system under my deck and this isn't even my house, it's my fathers. I'm moving into my own place at the end of this month finally, but still. I also plan to do major upgrades to insure I save as much water as possible.
[QUOTE]

Giving up on your move to Cali, plupan?

[Plutonic Panda]

[QUOTE=ljbab728;820115][QUOTE=Plutonic Panda;820101]Venture, I agree with you. I have become very conservative of my water usage and even shelled out some good money that I earned to place a rain barrel system under my deck and this isn't even my house, it's my fathers. I'm moving into my own place at the end of this month finally, but still. I also plan to do major upgrades to insure I save as much water as possible.

Giving up on your move to Cali, plupan?

No... me and my father are not on good terms right now. I want to get out of this house for a little while. I am taking one more semester at OCCC for Intro to Theater and moving to West Hollywood in January. If this house doesn't work out near UCO.. I am moving to Deep Deuce until January.

[td25er]

Death to everybody that wants a nice yard for their children to play in!!!!

[onthestrip]

So you want to try and force people to live on smaller lots. Gotcha

I dont think its that. If one family wants a big yard and pool, they will pay a little more than the one family that has a small yard and no pool. Everyone will pay the same amount up to a certain point, then if you go over, you pay a little higher rate, and so on. Just like income taxes, everyone pays the same amount, until they go over and then start paying more on what the added income. Its definitely the wise and fair way to pay for what is a limited resource.

[Plutonic Panda]

OKC Discussing Water Rate Increase - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

[jn1780]

For what it's worth I have over an acre and only ever hand water trees a such. If we get a
Moderate amount of rain my yard still looks great due to properly taking care of it. I think the big problem is people straight up are wasteful.

What?, but there's no golf course in your front yard though. lol

[Zuplar]

What?, but there's no golf course in your front yard though. lol

I have one of the nicer front yards in the neighborhood. Biggest difference, I cut my grass higher and more often. My neighbor has a sprinkler system and waters every 2 days, but cuts his way lower than mine and his yard looks bad compared to mine. Even this time of year I have dark green grass. By keeping it properly fertilized and cut higher, the ground stays moist longer meaning I water way less and still maintain a nice yard.

[catch22]

My neighbor floods the street every night. Glad the concrete gets a chance to cool down on these warm summer nights.

I really dislike the use of automatic sprinklers.

[BBatesokc]

...I really dislike the use of automatic sprinklers.

Why? It would only make sense that a properly utilized automatic sprinkler system would be an extremely efficient use of water. The only downside I see to them are the operators who set them to overwater or otherwise do not properly maintain them (leaking heads, etc.).

[kevinpate]

well, automatic sprinklers do fire off on schedule, even if the schedule triggers the on switch right before, in the middle of, or right after a frog strangler passes through the area.

[kevinpate]

... have it be seasonal and based on drought conditions and water supply. I would think it also needs to be combined with dual meters (one for inside use and the other for outside). If people opt for the two meters, then their inside usage is exempt from the season rate adjustments.

Although, as soon as one exempts inside usage, folks slap an attachment to an inside faucet, snap on the hose and run the hose out the window to a wide coverage sprinkler device. Having drained and filled a waterbed numerous times over three decades, I'm aware it takes about six seconds, on a hand hurting slow day, to hook a hose to a household sink.

[BBatesokc]

well, automatic sprinklers do fire off on schedule, even if the schedule triggers the on switch right before, in the middle of, or right after a frog strangler passes through the area.

Again, that's an operator issue. Takes two seconds to hit the 'off' button. Additionally, models like mine know when its raining or when the ground is saturated and will not come on.

Hand watering is very inefficient in many/most cases and I can't tell you how many times I've seen a neighbor with a hose sprinkler left on for an hour and the water is running down the street.

I measured the output of my sprinklers when we moved..... Place small containers of the same size within the sprinkler head pattern. Run the sprinkler for 15 minutes and then measure the water level in each container and divide by the number of containers. That gives you an average output for that head. Based on that output you can correctly set how long that zone should be watering. Since your heads are consistent in location and output, this would be far more efficient than hand watering or a hose based sprinkler IMO.

[kevinpate]

I don't disagree Brian. However, I suspect it is not terribly unfair of me to presume you expended more thought and effort in this one explanation than the total level of thought huge numbers of automatic sprinkler owners have collectively put into their systems.

That it is silly operator error doesn't mean all that much when operators are too silly to even ponder if there might be a better way than use the Ronco method of set it and forget it.

[Servicetech571]

The free market solution is to charge more for the water and less in monthly fixed taxes/fees. Water bill is $50 before you even turn a tap on, ridiculous...

[LakeEffect]

The free market solution is to charge more for the water and less in monthly fixed taxes/fees. Water bill is $50 before you even turn a tap on, ridiculous...

The fixed "fees" that result in the $50 minimum are not all related to water, the largest cost is your solid waste service. Also, the fixed costs we pay for our actual water service reflect the cost of capital required to bring water to your door. The variable cost you pay is minimal because it simply charges for the cost of treatment. That's the "free market" solution at work.

[mkjeeves]

The fixed "fees" that result in the $50 minimum are not all related to water, the largest cost is your solid waste service. Also, the fixed costs we pay for our actual water service reflect the cost of capital required to bring water to your door. The variable cost you pay is minimal because it simply charges for the cost of treatment. That's the "free market" solution at work.

That may or may not be true now but it won't be true with the proposed rate increase. The variable will be increased and on a sliding scale where the more you use the more you pay, all to fund 2 billion in capital improvements.

You can skip to 5:22 in the video and see a chart of the proposed increase over the next few years from the current 2.65 per thousand gallons.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-coun...rticle/5171260

[LakeEffect]

That may or may not be true now but it won't be true with the proposed rate increase. The variable will be increased and on a sliding scale where the more you use the more you pay, all to fund 2 billion in capital improvements.

You can skip to 5:22 in the video and see a chart of the proposed increase over the next few years from the current 2.65 per thousand gallons.

Oklahoma City Council sets public hearing on water rate increases | News OK

It will still be true - the variable cost applied will reflect that it costs more to treat more water for a big user (pipelines, reservoirs, etc.). The current flat rate structure minimizes that effect. I'm used to seeing the proposed charge format, many, many cities implemented this long ago.

[mkjeeves]

It will still be true - the variable cost applied will reflect that it costs more to treat more water for a big user (pipelines, reservoirs, etc.). The current flat rate structure minimizes that effect. I'm used to seeing the proposed charge format, many, many cities implemented this long ago.

Your statements conflict with each other, and conflict with reality. Pipelines, reservoirs are capital improvements. You said first:

Also, the fixed costs we pay for our actual water service reflect the cost of capital required to bring water to your door.

Then you said:

the variable cost applied will reflect that it costs more to treat more water for a big user (pipelines, reservoirs, etc.).

A pipeline is not water treatment. It's infrastructure to deliver water. The tax increase is being done primarily so the city can continue to grow over the next few decades. The funds for making those improvements are being collected by increasing the cost per gallon to almost everyone, weighted to heavy users. They are not increasing the fixed portion of the bill to cover these capital improvements, the subject of the original discussion of how the bill is structured.

With this increase, we're paying forward for future growth, not to supply our current water use levels. But someone did that for us in the past to build the reservoirs and pipelines we have now. Overholser was built in 1919. Hefner was built in 1947. Atoka in 1959 Etc. The story has always been make improvements so we can grow in the future. Cite: https://www.okc.gov/waterrights/history.html

[Clown puncher]

I water three times a week five zones @ 20 mins apiece and my water bill is the highest utility bill I have. I have check the bill against the meter , I don't have leaking toilets or anything that I can find that is wrong. I just can't figure out why it is so high.

[RadicalModerate]

"Water Rates to Increase" . . . Dang. sounds like a supply and demand deal t' me . . . Sure glad I still ain't a-wastin' water on a pet lawn. The ducks down at what's left of the gardenpark next to the Crystal Bridge are probably grateful . . . However . . . I hear the herbs out back crying for some relief . . . gotta go water . . .

[kevinpate]

I water three times a week five zones @ 20 mins apiece and my water bill is the highest utility bill I have. I have check the bill against the meter , I don't have leaking toilets or anything that I can find that is wrong. I just can't figure out why it is so high.

You have ruled out leaks. You don't suggest your use includes lengthy daily or more frequent showers as a norm in a multi-person household. 5 zones at 20 minutes each is 1.5 hours, thrice weekly, for a total of 4.5 hours of watering. That's a lot of watering, or seems to be to me anyway.

[Plutonic Panda]

I water three times a week five zones @ 20 mins apiece and my water bill is the highest utility bill I have. I have check the bill against the meter , I don't have leaking toilets or anything that I can find that is wrong. I just can't figure out why it is so high.

gaaa.. Garin?