SOUNDING OFF: More strategies to curb water use

The 8-cent-per-gallon cost of water quoted in the Coastline Pilot [“Water district OKs rate hike,” Nov. 14] should have been $.004 ($3.02 per unit/748 gallons/unit = $.004 = 0.4 cents/gallon). This does not include the fixed service cost of the meter.

At $0.004 per gallon, there is very little motivation to conserve water and the related pumping costs of the energy that is required to deliver potable water 24/7 to our taps from Lake Powell, the Sierras and regional wells.

To effect water and energy conservation, we should encourage our water districts to:

?Bill in consumer-friendly gallons rather than engineer’s units;

?Charge much less for the first few gallons consumed;

?Charge much more per unit (gallon) over a base allowance;

?Implement highly tiered rate structures;

?Use the cash flow from the higher tiers to provide much more technical assistance;

?Offer more incentives for “Smart” irrigation devices when accompanied by on-site voluntary inspections of irrigation systems;

?Provide rebates when noted deficiencies have been implemented;

?Implement remote automatic meter reading;

?Automatically and contemporaneously alarm users when water consumption is abnormally high;

?Bill monthly; and

?Generate more funding for repairing leaks in the district pipelines.

Smart and diligent consumers could end up paying more per unit, but spending less per year.

GARY UNDERHILL is a Laguna Beach resident.