[AmmoSgt In Memoriam]

The Pentagon figures there will not be any Major Wars over water for at least 10 years YEAAAAAAA!!!!! But saddly water resources may become the target of terrorists BOOOO HISSSSSSS

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/22/u-s-security-at-risk-over-water/?hpt=hp_t3

 

[AmmoSgt In Memoriam]

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/road-to-rio/secret-life-drinking-water/index.html
The secret life of drinking water

 

[greyheadedguy]

Water and "water shortages" is kind of a pet peeve with me. Here in the southern AZ desert our local water company started a program called "beat the peak" in the 60's. The whole scheme was to reduce peak water use to put off the necessary upgrades in our water storage and pumping equipment. Well the first year of the program we were so successful that the water department had to raise water rates becuase they did not have enough revinues to operate since we cut our overall water use.

Now we regularly get chewed on conserve water and water rates have increased so much. almost nobody has grass here anymore. I had 1,000 S.F. of grass until I could no longer afford to keep it. The year I killed it, the 1,000 S.F. of grass was costing me an additional $40 - $50 a month on mu water bill.

Now our cousins to the north of us who get on 3/4 of the rainfall that we get looks like Las Vegas or a area that gets 10 times the rainfall that they get. They flood irrigate their parks and properties that are connected to the Salt River Project. Flood irrigation is the most water wasting method of watering. The individuals who had access to the SRP water only paid like $6 - $10 a month I am told.

I understand water is and will be a issue, but these "save the Water" programs I have seen are a joke when done in communities like ours. I saw one the other day. Hpw many gallons of water does a typical 20 minute shower use? a 20 gallons, b 80 gallons or c 120 gallons? aswer? C 120 gallons! Wait hold on what are they talking about the average shower head you can buy here is 2 gallons per minute, or if you can find one of those water wasters you might find a 2.5 GPM or even rarer a 3 GPM shower head. Then they went on to water used to flush a toilet and their test came up with some ungodly amount of water that was wasted. You can't buy those water wasters here, you would have to smuggle on here from somewhere else.

A long time ago the local water company realized their power in the growth of the city and actually had gold keys painted on their building, showing they had the keys to the growth of our community.

The way they figure your water use billing here is that the water you use in the months of like Sept - March are figured to be you base water use and your sewer fees are based on that use. In the warmer months of April - August any additional water use is considered to be used for out door watering use and you are charged incrementally more for the amount of water you use up to penalizing rates that really gouge if you get into the tier higher use tiers. Some areas here charge like $3,000 just to get a 3/4" water meter.

 

[Petrov]

A house 30 or 40 miles for me listed for sale last week at $310,000. 1800 sq ft.on 5 acres up a long dirt driveway. No water for part of the year and it has to be trucked in at - get this - only 400 gallons at at time because otherwise there's a risk of the water truck getting stuck in the driveway. So if one took one of those 20 minute showers and flushed the head a few times a day that delivery - at a price of $400 (yes, a buck a gallon) would last less than 3 days. The place was a bank foreclosure; no disclosures on how may dry months a year it has on average. It got 7 offers and went pending immediately - I don't know what the highest offer was but I hear is was well in excess of the asking price.

 

[AmmoSgt In Memoriam]

That's some crazy stuff ... I'm planning to install my own cistern to hold rain water out of my 4 rain barrels .. and I don't pay anything like what you folks are talking about

Here , for new construction there is a $1000 "Aid to builders" fee for new contruction.. for that, the utilities comes out and give you temporary connections to any utilities you need .. then for water you pay $200 for the final 1" meter

Utilities rates a $10 availability charge and then the Consumption Charge
First 2,500 gallons: $2.50 per 1,000 gallons
Next 2,500 gallons: $3.75 per 1,000 gallons
Next 5,000 gallons $3.50 per 1,000 gallons
Next 40,000 gallons $3.25 per 1,000 gallons
All over 50,000 gallons $4.51 per 1,000 gallons

I seldom pay more than $7.50, my typical usage is 60-80 gallons a day , and that inculdes watering the trees if my rain barrels are empty and maybe the veggie garden if we haven't had rain for a while in the summer and fall. And my rates are twice what the folks who live within the city limits are. Changing the water in my hot tub costs me less than $2.

 

[Petrov]

California is tough because water storage isn't just an issue of smoothing out the peaks and troughs...there's no rain for 6 months out of the year, than as much as 60 inches in the wet season depending on where you live. Try saving 6 months worth of water.
I don't have time in the morning for more than a two minute shower - maybe 3 minutes. Since I'm either at work or out chasing around the hills most of the time the head probably gets flushed once - maybe twice - a day. #1's - head for the front door and not the head. Redwoods all around; no one can see me, guy thing...

 

[Oldstuffer]

In honor of this, I shal now go take an extra long shower after all my outside work today.

 

[Alfonso]

Sure it is very difficulty to storage water in California because the California is those place where people
face many storms.


Big Berkey

 

[MosinDawg]

I turned on my water in the sink and ran it for an hour. Just to help out you know.:clap: