Re:Why districts are slow to charge market rates for water
by eru on Monday May 22, 2023 @12:58AM
(#36027626)
> I do agree that much of the problems we have is forcing public utilities (water, power, transit) to ALSO be social programs; this dual-goal always ends up messing things up.
Amen to that. Not only public utilities, but also employers and stores etc.
Giving (poor) people money should be the default. Everything else should require careful justification.
This is a really big aspect of it, and "save water" applied without thought can be counter-productive.
Where I live, the water comes out of the ground in wells, goes through the system, and leeches back into the ground in a giant septic system (that they call the wastewater treatment plant). It's pretty well contained and as long as we are nowhere near the limit the main thing sewer/water is paying for is maintenance of the system.
That is NOT the case everywhere in the USA, especially the states where water is piped in from miles and miles away.
I do agree that much of the problems we have is forcing public utilities (water, power, transit) to ALSO be social programs; this dual-goal always ends up messing things up.