Check your water usage (August 2, 2015)
John Olive writes that he has cut his water usage by 60 percent, but still pays a drought surcharge (Letters, Press Dispatch, August 2, 2015). John, and anyone else who reads this, here’s a news flash: If you’re paying a drought surcharge, you’re using a lot of water!
Assuming his supplier is Apple Valley Ranchos, he gets 16 units of water (almost 12,000 gallons) per month before surcharges kick in. It would appear that John used roughly 17.74 units per month, but was billed the drought surcharge only for 1.74 units because it went into effect on July 1st, which was probably about half-way through his billing cycle.
By way of comparison, my wife and I may be bad examples because we’re on half an acre, and being retired we’re home all the time. Like most persons, we like showers and flush toilets and landscaping and swamp coolers. But our last bill from Ranchos was for 6 units of water (3 units per month).
Anyone who is using almost six times more water than we are, needs to call his water provider to have them perform a water audit.
— Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.