A good lesson on unintended consequences and typical government run services. You'd have thought they would have set aside a percentage of the water charges for all those years expecting to need it in the future for improvements, rather than gouging everyone AFTER the fact!
Three years ago, when we first moved into our new home, we were having a drought and the city restricted water use and they stopped installation of private wells and restricted use of private wells (afterall, all our water comes from the same water source whether private or municipal). So putting in a private well wasn't an option.
We invested a good deal of money and installed water barrels with a 1,000 gallon storage capacity to use for watering our new yard, landscaping and garden. We redesigned our landscaping using Xeriscape methods and native plants that require less water, and fewer plants, so the only grass we have is a postage-size bit in the front yard and a mandated 10-foot stip in the back yard where the underground utilities are buried; and spent a ton of $ on tons of landscape rock and concrete walkways and additional parking to eliminate grass on the side yards.
So we did all the right things to conserve water.... Taking short showers every other day, rather than EVERY day, and sponge baths the days we didn't shower. Doing clean-up and dishes after a meal in only 1-gallon of SAVED water (cold water in the line caught in a bucket or jug while waiting for the water to get hot for a shower) and only running the dishwasher or doing a load of laundry with full loads....blah, blah, blah.
So what was the reward for everyone in town saving water? The city had less revenue (money coming in) due to forced conservation. They fixed THAT, they figured out a way to charge us MORE for using less water. So now if we even THINK of turning on a faucet, it's going to cost us more than our base minimum amount because they set the minimum amount so low. Before, we never used the minimum amount unless we watered the yard in the summer.
