Just finished reading James Workman’s latest, Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought, and it has fed into my thinking about Asheville’s water rates.
Heretofore I have advocated that we encourage conservation by determining average per capita use (which for bookkeeping reasons probably means average per-bedroom use), then reducing rates below the average and raising rates above the average. This would enable rate payers to limit their bills more significantly through conservation efforts.
Workman’s careful analysis of water use and water problems around the globe has led me to consider a new formulation: The first 50 or 100 gallons per person per day should be free, with sharply steeper rates above that. (The number of free gallons is subject to analysis and debate – but is based on the idea that everyone has right to some quantity of potable water.) At the same time we create a water credit system. You would accumulate credits by using less than your free allotment, and the credits could be traded. The value of a credit would be established in the marketplace and would presumably be lower than the established rate. Therefore, those who conserve could sell credits to big users. Overall the price for “big” use would still be higher than it is today, so everyone would be encouraged to conserve, but the tradable credits would help big users to offset some of the price increase. This kind of system is no more difficult to operate than cell phone minutes or frequent flier miles, both of which are quite familiar to modern citizens.
Because the system would apply to all on the Asheville water system it would meet the requirements of the Sullivan Acts that we offer the same rates inside and outside the city limits, but because there are more large users outside the city limits it would presumably shift more of the burden to county customers.
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