CHARLOTTESVILLE residents can expect a nasty surprise when they look at their water bill later this month. There will be a 50 percent rate hike, which is on top of the previous rate hike this fall. But here is the kicker: the reason is not because Charlottesville wants to discourage water use. Rather, because of the excellent conservation efforts of Charlottesville residents, the water company actually lost money. Now the Charlottesville City Council has the nerve to pass the increased fees on to their residents, after spending all fall discouraging water use.
On Oct. 21, a 50 percent water surcharge was applied to all water consumption in Charlottesville. The reason for this was to increase conservation efforts. This seemed like a good idea, considering that the city was going through such a bad drought. They made the right decision to increase the rates for all water consumption, while previous hikes had only affected households who used at least 600 cubic feet.
But apparently Charlottesville residents were too good at conservation. In a truly outrageous and unjust move,starting Nov. 18 the city water rates will increase from $37.16 to $55.47 per 1,000 cubic feet of water, a 50 percent increase over the last hike. Because of everyone's noble conservation efforts, the city made less revenue and now wants to make up for its shortfall.
The city of Charlottesville is not greedy. It simply needs the money to pay for the water and the water service it provides. Even if less water is used, the service is a fixed cost, which means the city is collecting less money per gallon of water.
Yet the city, like the University and every other area institution, encouraged water conservation. Now, as if by a cruel joke, Charlottesville residents are forced to pay even more for their water, simply because most of them did a good thing and tried to conserve.
Charlottesville should have paid for the loss of revenue due to conservation by itself, without passing the increase on to the water customers. Anything would have been better than the current decision, because paradoxically it seems to punish conservation. Councilman Rob Schilling addressed the issue of whether the loss of water revenues should have been made up through a water rate increase or taxes and said that whether it is an increase on the water bill or taxes, it comes from the same place. Furthermore, he added that it is more "honest" to increase the water rates than taxes, since that is where the revenue shortfall is.
Schilling is correct about the money mostly coming from the same place, and the water rate hike is more direct. But any monetary increase on residents of Charlottesville adversely affects them because they conserved in the first place.
Charlottesville City Council member Kevin Lynch said that the city is discussing two short-term projects to help alleviate the water problems in Charlottesville. First, the South Fork reservoir -- the main reservoir -- will be raised four feet. Another idea is to create a pumping station to divert water from the South Fork reservoir, which gets the most water, to less well-endowed reservoirs that also serve the community. Both of these ideas would likely be funded by surcharges on water bills for city residents. The increase of water rates to help prevent future droughts is fine. The issue is not so much the money; water is much cheaper than many other utilities such as electricity. The issue is principle.
If the City of Charlottesville needs new infrastructure to deal with future water shortages, it is perfectly reasonable to charge the residents. The difference with the latest water hike is that it is not for any good cause. It was done solely because conservation efforts deprived the city of Charlottesville of necessary money to conduct its water service.
Charlottesville and the surrounding area simply got unlucky with the drought. Conservation efforts were very much needed and still should be followed. But the city should have taken the rational approach and not punished its residents for conserving water.
(Harris Freier's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at hfreier@cavalierdaily.com.)
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