Most Hailey residents are using a lot less water than they were two years ago, and their efforts may soon bring them a decrease in their water bills.
However, city officials say that despite the success at water conservation in the city, water rates must remain stable enough to pay loans for the upgraded water delivery and metering system.
"It's a double-edged sword," said Public Works Director Tom Hellen at a City Council meeting last month.
Hellen said he hopes those who continue to binge on water in the city will see an increase in their water bills under a new fee schedule proposed by the Public Works Department.
The city installed a water-metering system in the fall of 2007 at a cost of $1.5 million, $750,000 of which was paid with a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Since that time, the Hailey Public Works Department has had its first good look at water use in the town.
Water consumption has dropped 23 percent since the summer of 2007 when meters were first used. City officials expect consumption to drop further this year.
From October 2007 to September 2008, the city consumed 653,622,000 gallons of water. Due to the incentive of metering and educational outreach from city officials advocating water conservation, Public Works Director Tom Hellen expects the city to consume 33,000,000 gallons less this year, or 620,225,000 gallons.
Under a proposed fee change, the monthly base rate for water users will be reduced from $10.24 to $10.15 and residents using less than 50,000 gallons per month will see incrementally reduced water bills.
Those using less than 30,000 gallons per month will see per-gallon costs reduced by nearly 50 percent. But those who use more than 65,000 gallons per month, about 12 percent of Hailey water users, will see incremental increases in their water bills. Those using more than 80,000 gallons per month will see about $15 added to their water bills.
During a second reading of the proposed ordinance change at a City Council meeting Monday, Hailey resident Peter Lobb said the changes would discriminate against water users with large city lots because they had more land to irrigate than their neighbors.
"Its about proportionality," said Lobb, who suggested charging water users based on gallons used relative to the square footage they need to maintain.
Mayor Rick Davis said such a move would require the city to measure the amount of lawn on each lot to be irrigated.
"In some cases, this would include portions of city property that they irrigate," he said.
Councilwoman Carol Brown said she has one of those large city lots Lobb described and that she was able to reduce her water consumption from 80,000 gallons per month to 30,000 gallons per month since metering began.
"We are concerned with those people who watered day and night in June, even though it rained the whole month," Brown said.
TonyEvans: tevans@mtexpress.com