Water rate conservation goals target the wrong customers
Families will pay heavily while customers with horses (and city officials) get exemptions.
Los Angeles has never been friendly to families given its dysfunctional schools, high taxes and fees, its scarcity of parks and an unfriendly business climate that been chasing retail and manufacturing businesses to other nearby cities.
Friday, April 17th added yet another burden to living in the city when the Los Angeles City Council approved lowering Tier 1 allocations by 15% and increasing the water rate on those who can’t stay under the allocation.
The new rate reduces the basic allocation from 28 to 24 HCF every two months which will squeeze the available water allocation in a 5 member family to about 60 gallons a day per person.
By definition, any family with three to six members who stays under the current 28 HCF is already conserving since they are using up to 70% less per person than another household with only two people.
While families with several children will likely have to forego a shower once every few days to stay under the Tier 1 allocation, the City Council did give one important group a break, they offered customers with horses an exemption to the new rate! Yep, Old Paint takes precedence over your spouse and kids.
It doesn’t stop there however. The extra burden on families is especially noticeable in how the Tier1 rates are calculated. Residents living on larger lots are given additional water allowances well above the 24 HCF. The new rates will have little personal effect on residents living on lot sizes greater than 7,500 square feet since all they have to do is cut back watering on the Agapanthus.
For instance, a resident living on an 11,000 sq. ft. lot has nearly two times as much water available to them at 40 HCF than a resident living on a lot smaller than 7500 square ft even though their family size is comparable.
If you have more dirt, you get more water. Residents living on lots as large as 43,560 sq. ft. and over will have up to 60 HCF before they have to pay Tier 2 rates.
LADWP General Manager David Nahai and his wife and two children who live on a 15,594 sq. ft lot will have 40 HCF available to them. That amounts to about 124 gallons per day for each of his family members before they will be subject to Tier 2 rates. This is the very same person who was fingered as L.A.s most prolific water waster last year while averaging over 90 HCF.
What They Should Do…
Old Paint should get his exemption of course but the rest of the City’s new rate structure really targets the wrong customer.
A much fairer solution (and one that seems more in keeping with many city staffers and elected officials who believe that residents should give up their lawns) would be to leave the lowest lot size allocation alone at 28 HCF and significantly reduce the allocations for larger lots. Maybe as much as 25% to 30%. After all, the extra water allocated to larger lots is used almost solely for landscaping.
Most people think the Tier 1 allocations are just one number, 28 HCF (or roughly 21,000 gallons) that we get every two months. What isn’t ever quoted in news stories is that it are really 5 different allotments for each temperature zone and where your household fits in depends on the size of property you live on.
Westchester and Playa del Rey will actually get even less water because of the temperature zone we live in. W/PdR residents will have to cut back to 22 HFC per billing period. That amounts to 68 gallons per person each day in a 4 member household and 45 gallons per person in a 6 member household. Such small sums are quickly used up simply by doing what is necessary to stay clean and healthy.
In Westchester/Playa, we live in the low temperature zone and our current Tier 1 allocation is:
up to 7,499 sq ft. = 26 HCF
up to 10,999 sq ft. = 32 HCF
up to 17,499 sq ft. = 48 HCF
up to 43,559 sq ft. = 56 HCF
above 43,560 = 72 HCF
The first level is for the most part a lifeline allocation regardless of where you live. There was not a lot of margin in that first level between what a family of four or more needs in the normal course of daily chores, cooking, hygiene, laundry, etc. and what some folks in government think are excess.
The more members you have in a household, the less water that each person has available to them and given there are certain basic needs per person (showers, toilet flushes, glasses of water, etc) medium and large families will likely exceed the maximum allocation to a residential lot.
Unfortunately our Council Members and their staff haven’t done their homework and instead accept as gospel whatever the LADWP and its Mayor appointed General Manager has to say -which is pretty typical- in LA City government.
Here is what we will have now:
up to 7,499 sq ft. = 22 HCF
up to 10,999 sq ft. = 27 HCF
up to 17,499 sq ft. = 40 HCF
up to 43,559 sq ft. = 47 HCF
above 43,560 = 61 HCF
What city officials should have done is acknowledge that additional water allocations for lot sizes above 7,499 sq ft are for primarily for landscaping and it is those lots that should be asked to conserve more. Not the lowest allocation where most homes of our community fall under.
This rate schedule would have had a far better conservation result without impacting the people who already conserve the most.
up to 7,499 sq ft. = 26 HCF ; 0 cut
up to 10,999 sq ft. = 26 HCF ; 20% cut
up to 17,499 sq ft. = 36 HCF ; 25% cut
up to 43,559 sq ft. = 42 HCF ; 25% cut
above 43,560 = 54 HCF ; 25% cut
Let’s thank our Councilman for this new burden imposed on us.
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