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Show the installation and planting of water conserving landscaping. The principles include limiting lawn areas, using plants and trees with low water requirements, irrigating only when needed, watering during morning or evening hours, and improving soils in shrub and garden areas by using mulches. 17.4.7 Pricing Pricing policies are suggested as a means of reducing per capita water use. Flat rates ( same price for each unit of water) provide little incentive for consumers to conserve. Decreasing block rates ( lower unit prices for larger volume) provide even less conservation incentive. " Take or pay" contracts, which provide water purveyors with the guaranteed revenue stream needed for bonding, do not promote any conservation below the contracted amount. Increasing block rates provide the greatest conservation incentive for consumers. Under this pricing policy, consumers experience an increasing unit price for higher water consumption. To be effective, the increasing block rate must be substantial and would probably require strong public support. Beginning July 1, 1995, Salt Lake City Corporation implemented seasonal rates for its water customers. This new rate strategy cuts water rates for eight months during the spring, winter and fall, when water is plentiful. Water rates increase during the four months of summer when the cost of delivery increases because of high demand for outside watering. Titled the " Summer- Efficiency Rate," this rate restructuring is designed to be revenue- neutral and is intended to delay building new aqueducts and treatment plants. If successful, similar plans could be adopted by other water purveyors in the Jordan River Basin and throughout the state. In November 1994, Kearns Improvement District initiated a progressive water rate structure for residential and municipal water users. For the first 10,000 gallons of water residential users are charged 90 cents per thousand gallons. The rate is then increased by 10 cents per thousand gallons with each additional 10,000 gallons of use. In other words: $ 1.00 per thousand gallons for the second 10,000 gallons of use, $ 1.10 per thousand gallons for the third 10,000 gallons, etc. The district has also established an increasing block rate for users that irrigate large lawn parcels. These irrigators are allotted 120 percent of the amount of water necessary to grow Kentucky Bluegrass, at $ 1.00 per thousand gallons. Anything exceeding that allotment is charged at $ 1.50 per thousand gallons. It has been estimated that although this program offers relatively inexpensive water at the lower block rate, it has been well received and resulted in a decrease in water use of 13 to 15 percent. 17.4.8 Water Measurement Accurate measurement of water encourages water conservation in several ways. Not only is each user assured of fair and equitable distribution and financial assessments, it is also a more business- like way to operate a system and provide records. Where users pay according to the quantity of water they actually use, there is a built- in incentive to conserve, whether the use is irrigation, municipal or industrial. Most community water systems are metered. Properties like city parks, golf courses and cemeteries, however, do not have meters. 17.4.9 Secondary or " Dual" Systems Secondary water systems, also known as " dual" water systems, provide untreated water of moderate quality for outdoor uses, primarily lawn- watering and gardening. Because these systems require the construction of an additional water conveyance infrastructure, they can be expensive. However, secondary water systems are economical if the construction costs are less than the cost of enlarging the M& I system to meet future needs and the costs associated with treating the water to drinking water standards. While there may be an economic incentive for building secondary water systems based on the cost of high quality treated water conserved, studies have shown that " secondary" systems do not promote overall water conservation. Since secondary water is less expensive than treated water and is seldom metered, consumers tend to use more of it when watering their lawns. Only a few secondary water systems are in place in the Jordan River Basin. Since retrofitting can be expensive, it is doubtful many new secondary water systems will be constructed in existing communities. In areas of new construction where an adequate secondary water supply exists, secondary systems may prove economical. Construction of these systems allows the use of lower quality ( untreated) water on lawns and gardens freeing up the existing developed high quality water for meeting growth. 17- 6 |