DeKalb Water and Sewer (W&S) Rates will begin to go up big time starting next year and continuing at least through 2011. The rate increase has little to do with the drought, and plenty to do with continuing subsidization of South DeKalb development. The rate increase and projects are discussed below.
Rates – A little over one-half of DeKalb residential users use between 4,000 to 20,000 gallons of water bimonthly. Rates for these users will increase 85% between 2007 and 2011. A typical 8,000 gallon bimonthly household that currently pays $52.88 will be paying $95.44 in 2011. Adjusted for 3% annual inflation that’s $84.80, a 60% increase and almost $200 more per year, in today’s dollars.
Rate structure. The Good – The 2007 DeKalb W&S rate structure is/was relatively (rates proportional to use) flat. Factor in the fixed charge, and the 2007 rates penalized low quantity users and did little to encourage conservation. The new rate structure lowers the fixed charge, with rates substantially increasing at 4,000, 20,000 and 40,000 gallons bimonthly. DeKalb W&S rates will still be reasonably relative to metro Atlanta even after the increase. The Bad – Only 9% of users use more than 20,000 gallons bimonthly, and only 2% use more than 40,000 gallons bimonthly so the rate structure doesn’t much encourage typical users to conserve. Over half of all users are in the 4,000-20,000 gallon category. It’s so broad that the rate structure is unlikely to encourage people to conserve their way to lower incremental rates. A typical 8,000 gallon user would have to half use to get to a lower incremental rate.)
Here’s a link to the rate presentation made to County Commissioners: http://www.dekalbwatersewer.com/PDF/RateStudyPresentation.pdf
Conclusion: A rate structure that better encourages conservation is a step in the right direction.
Program – $1,400,000,000 for maintenance and capacity improvements. The Good – DeKalb W&S infrastructure is aging and appropriate maintenance is prudent. (The Atlanta stormwater debacle illustrates the folly of postponing improvements.) The Bad – More than half of the program expense is to increase South DeKalb Sewerage capacity. DeKalb doesn’t have development impact fees, so this constitutes a subsidy on the order of a $500,000,000 subsidy for South DeKalb development. (Who says campaign contribution investments don’t pay off?) The big money new capacity items in the program: Double the capacity of the Snapfinger Waste Water Treatment Plant $324,000,000, Double the capacity of the Pole Bridge Waste Water Treatment Plant $216,000,000, Tunnel to connect the two treatment plants $200,000,000, East Area Tunnel $100,000,000. (The $500M subsidy assertion herein allows $200,000,000 cost toward improving plant processes and not merely the addition of capacity.)
Here’s a link to the $1.4B list W&S projects: http://www.dekalbwatersewer.com/PDF/2007-2011-Capital-Improv-Projects.pdf
Conclusion: Write your County Commissioners indicating strong support for the imposition of development fees. Don’t support any candidates for CEO or County Commission that don’t support imposition of development fees, especially incumbent County Commissioner that approved the expenditures and rate increases.
PS – The County deserves praise for making the detailed information that was used to develop this message available on-line!
[...] county recently raised water rates. The bulk of this rate increase won’t be used to fix leaks and help homeowners get [...]
Well thanks to Mike Jacobs for the above link, it was very informative.
Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: Let’s do what they’re doing in Atlanta!
In the city of Atlanta citizens are offered credits and incentives for retro-fitting plumbing fixtures that amount to up to 50% of the cost in some cases. For instance, a low-flow toilet in Atlanta can cost as little as $50.00!
The carrot works a lot better than the stick when it comes to purchasing something as glamorous as a toilet, but it seems that Vernon Jones is fresh out of carrots.
He consistently brings out the sticks on water issues.
Does anyone out there want to talk about the drought?
I have loads of inflammatory rhetoric and opinions ready to go at a moments notice…
Yes, I’d like to talk about the drought! And though this isn’t Doraville or Dekalb, it has me rather incensed.
It’s the home of Chris G. Carlos — of National Distributing Co. and the same family as the Carlos Museum at Emory. This residence at 4151 Thunderbird drive uses as much water as the average 60-home subdivision, using an average of 390,000 gallons of water per month.
I hope Vernon Jones is watching.
***********************************************************
http://www.wsbtv.com/drought/14545360/detail.html
One Home Tops Cobbs Water Hog List
POSTED: 6:34 pm EST November 8, 2007
UPDATED: 4:22 pm EST November 10, 2007
[NEWSVINE: One Home Tops Cobbs Water Hog List] [DELICIOUS: One Home Tops Cobbs Water Hog List] [DIGG: One Home Tops Cobbs Water Hog List] [FACEBOOK: One Home Tops Cobbs Water Hog List] [REDDIT: One Home Tops Cobbs Water Hog List] [RSS] [PRINT: One Home Tops Cobbs Water Hog List] [EMAIL: One Home Tops Cobbs Water Hog List]
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Cobb Water officials are drafting a warning letter to high water users. Soon, rates will nearly double for customers who use more than their share. Channel 2 dug through the records and found the top home on the list.
Channel 2 obtained months and months of records from the Cobb County Water System. One address rose to the top of the list month after month – a single house that last month used enough water to fill 1,000 hot tubs.
“I think it’s absurd, I really do,” said Ken Scott. Scott lives across the street from 4151 Thunderbird Drive. It’s a single home that uses as much water as a 60 home subdivision.
“With all the pressure on everybody not to use water and to conserve…I think it’s ridiculous,” said Scott.
Over the past six months the address has used an average of 390,000 gallons of water. Last month it was 440,000 – up 15% from last October when there was no crisis. That one home would drain the nearby water plant’s filtration field in less than a year.
“We face a real resource issue,” said Water Conservation officer Kathy Nguyen. Nguyen fears even when Cobb County doubles the cost of water for high-end users it may not matter. “A lot of people think that’s the cost of doing business for me…it’s more important that I use this water than it is for me to reduce my use,” said Nguyen.
The house is not your average user and the house doesn’t have your average meter. It’s a 2 inch meter, which is big enough to service a strip mall.
Channel 2 has no evidence the home’s owner is violating the water ban. Channel 2 attempted to ask him but he didn’t want to talk.
Cobb County will start charging its new high-end rates early next year — $5 per thousand for 50,000 gallons and up. Channel 2 figured last months water bill for the home would go from about $1,250 to $2,100.
I’d have no difficulty in cutting off water service to a “home” like that. I wonder if they’re going to want police protection from the neighbors when there’s only a muddy trickle from the faucets in a few months?
http://www.atlantawatershortage.com/
Carlos has cut his water usage back to 2,000 gal. per day, which is significant, but still the situation is disgusting.
It’s reported that he told his landscaper to stop watering last week. Seems he continuously plants. Maybe he was also one of the only customer’s at Pike’s, who’s now filed for bankruptcy!!
Reportedly, he’s hired an environmental pro to consult on water usage.
Too bad he didn’t hire somebody to read the news for him.
I’m very sorry Pike’s had to file for bankruptcy!!
I was just in there yesterday and they literally had no bedding plants and about 1/4 the stock of evergreens. The sales clerk said things were tough, but they hoped to do better with the Christmas trees and related materials.
And I wonder what people are doing about swimming pools? You would think you couldn’t keep them full either. If I had one I’d pump the water out of it to, at least, keep the shrubs alive.
I think they need to keep Lake Lanier plugged, sorry Florida and Alabama, but it’s tough all over.
Let’s hope we get some rain TONIGHT!!
Don’t have any idea what people with pools are doing, but I do have an opinion. LOL
We may have to rethink that old cliche “Save it for a rainy day.” It should be more like, “Save it for an UNrainy-day.”
Some water is falling from the sky right now. It’s kind of scary.
Well I wish Sonny would do it again!!
You’ve got that right, SOSO!
I haven’t checked the rain gauge, yet, but by 6am, the leaves were already crackly dry. They need to work harder to get us some real rain.
I have dry leaves, too, Rich, but at least after 6:00 a.m. and maybe before, there was wind blowing more down. The soil is still moist, which is a good thing, and it was nice to see that it COULD rain, anyway.
It would be great if we could get the agnostics/atheists to say, “Hey, just IN CASE I’m wrong . . . ” rather than making a big squabble out of Perdue.
I noticed the road and concrete driveways. They were pretty much dry this morning. I guess they were so dry, they just sucked the rain up.
The rain started around 11:30pm, and it rained pretty well, so I was surprised.
And I was very thankful….
To The AJC Editor:
The AJC is to be commended for publicizing the electric power generation industry’s use of water, but “The Power of Water” (AJC, Nov 17) did not put the water use in household terms. Assume all power plants use recirculating cooling systems requiring one-half gallon water per kilowatt-hour (kW-hr) as cited in the story. This is worst case in that flow-through cooling systems use less water, but is a valid standard given that recirculating cooling systems are the Southern Company standard for new power generation. Power generation for the average 1,100 kW-hr per month household cited in the story thus requires 550 gallons per month.
Relative power generation and water utility consumption should be based on net use, withdrawals less returns. It has been widely reported that 18% of water utility withdrawals is unmetered, most of that difference being line leakage or other loss. Consider water lost to household irrigation (at least outside of current ban), and net use for the typical 9,000 gallons per month household (cited in the story) is roughly on the order of 1/4 of the 9,000 metered gallons or 2,250 gallons per month.
Relative household and power generation monthly consumption may now be compared: 2,250 gallons direct household net usage and 550 gallons for household power. I began this calculation expecting that power generation consumption would not be very significant, but frankly am surprised by the result. Use of natural gas for heating, water heaters, cooking, drying clothes etc in new and used homes can now be marketed as water conservation!
Here are some fuzzy facts from my memory warehouse:
The entire Metro-Atlanta area uses on average less than 1 billion gallons of water per day, of that about one-third is returned via filtered waste water.
The Army Corps of Engineers releases about 6 billion gallons per day to Alabama and Florida, despite the fact that Alabama has about three times the river volume of Georgia.
What Alabama is lacking is a water reservoir. The Corps is 99% finished constructing that needed reservoir. Alabama is suing the Corps to stop construction.
Florida is using the Endangered Species Act as an excuse to take more of our water to augment their shellfish industry, and to run a coal-fired power plant that supplies power to about 19,000 homes.
So we are stuck with a dying lake, job and businesses losses, and worst of all no fake snow at Stone Mountain!
This is not a drought caused by nature, this is a drought caused by politics.
If it makes people feel good to turn off their shower while lathering up, run their toilets with water from a bucket in their bath tub, and watch their neighbors lawns with binoculars…more power to them, but it won’t do a bit of good.
Every single drop you save is a drop that ends up in the Gulf of Mexico.
I’m protesting the situation by increasing my own water intake from 8 to 16 glasses daily.
Well, I may “protest,” as well, but it’s going to be with Budweiser.
But I am conserving, and I don’t care right now whose damned fault it is. We’re in a pickle, folks.
But if you want to talk about “fault,” we’re all involved. America is a wasteful country and Atlanta as well as other areas are overpopulated for the water infrastructure that’s been built to date.
We could even “blame” the folks who sell their property to developers let alone the new businesses and folk who have blown up this city to the size it is over the past two decades.
We desperately need a regional water commission such as exists in other parts of the country.
Over the weekend, I read in the AJC that Las Vegas had even paid their residents $1 per square foot of grass that they dug up from their yards! Imagine! Food for thought, though: They also have the idea of, “If the only thing that touches that grass is a lawn mower, then do you really NEED it?”, leaving grass allowable in back yards for kids and pets.