It wound up this summer that we never turned on our sprinkler system. The only supplemental watering I did was the drip for the garden, and a few times I watered the new fruit trees and shrubs (we are attempting Haskaps and another round of raspberries).
I was curious to see what the difference was with last year, which was a moderate summer in terms of moisture; the late-summer flood notwithstanding. It turns out we used in the ballpark of about 10X more water with the sprinkler system on than off. The difference with the bill? Less than half. How is 10X more water less than double the cost??? I know there's automatic fees and taxes just for the water service, which is fine, but I'm thinking "this is a pittance!" OTOH, this is a great argument against privatization: just for the internet, it's about 3X the (regular) water bill and while fairly reliable, not 100%. I have never turned on the water and not had it work. The water comes out fresh for drinking or whatever, every time. The ONE time we got close to having a boil water order (and some people did in parts nearby) was during a major natural disaster.
But back to the cheapness of water. Well, no wonder every yard is green, green grass! Instead of, say, native wildflowers like my yard. No wonder the neighbors start watering in like March or early April, between snow storms. Instead of starting mid-June at earliest. No wonder the city waters the soccer fields so much, mushrooms grow everywhere on it. This is in a semi-arid climate, where the yearly precip is ~15 inches per year and highly variable. Of course people waste water when it's cheap. If it worked such that a fairly normal use for a family per month was a reasonable cost, but then it got more expensive per unit beyond that, we'd see a lot more conservation. Farmers, growing things we eat, might get more of a chance to grow stuff to eat (and feed their own families, and have a more stable income) instead of every house on every street having an emerald lawn that never gets touched except to spray chemicals to kill weeds and bugs and spew pollutants into the air to mow it down. So they can water it. So the weeds grow. So they get sprayed. So the grass can grow. So it can be mowed.
Sigh.
I was curious to see what the difference was with last year, which was a moderate summer in terms of moisture; the late-summer flood notwithstanding. It turns out we used in the ballpark of about 10X more water with the sprinkler system on than off. The difference with the bill? Less than half. How is 10X more water less than double the cost??? I know there's automatic fees and taxes just for the water service, which is fine, but I'm thinking "this is a pittance!" OTOH, this is a great argument against privatization: just for the internet, it's about 3X the (regular) water bill and while fairly reliable, not 100%. I have never turned on the water and not had it work. The water comes out fresh for drinking or whatever, every time. The ONE time we got close to having a boil water order (and some people did in parts nearby) was during a major natural disaster.
But back to the cheapness of water. Well, no wonder every yard is green, green grass! Instead of, say, native wildflowers like my yard. No wonder the neighbors start watering in like March or early April, between snow storms. Instead of starting mid-June at earliest. No wonder the city waters the soccer fields so much, mushrooms grow everywhere on it. This is in a semi-arid climate, where the yearly precip is ~15 inches per year and highly variable. Of course people waste water when it's cheap. If it worked such that a fairly normal use for a family per month was a reasonable cost, but then it got more expensive per unit beyond that, we'd see a lot more conservation. Farmers, growing things we eat, might get more of a chance to grow stuff to eat (and feed their own families, and have a more stable income) instead of every house on every street having an emerald lawn that never gets touched except to spray chemicals to kill weeds and bugs and spew pollutants into the air to mow it down. So they can water it. So the weeds grow. So they get sprayed. So the grass can grow. So it can be mowed.
Sigh.
Water is way too cheap!
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