LeakBird

(May 7, 2009, The San Diego Tribune)
The city of Escondido is considering stepping up its water-conservation efforts from the current Level 1, voluntary water conservation, to Level 2, mandatory restrictions, starting July 1.
That could mean watering lawns only three days a week, Escondido’s utilities director Lori Vereker said.
The City Council is expected to decide [...]

(March 22, 2009, The Mercury News)

As California’s drought continues, water rationing is becoming a reality in many cities — and Antioch is no exception.
On Tuesday, the City Council will be asked to weigh in on a water shortage contingency plan to cut consumption by an estimated 25 percent — the amount by which Antioch’s water [...]

(March 20, 2009, The Mercury News)

The pain of a full-blown summer drought came closer to reality Friday when the staff of Silicon Valley’s main water supplier recommended a 15 percent mandatory cutback.
If the board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District — which is the wholesale supplier of drinking water for 1.8 million people from [...]

(March 20, 2009, The San Diego Tribune)
The top 10 percent of residential water customers in Poway account for roughly 40 percent of all water used by the city, and the top 5 percent use about 25 percent.
They would be most affected by a proposal the City Council is considering to institute tiered water rates that [...]

As the growing demand for all things water escalates across the United State (hydrologists, water conservation systems, water lawyers, new sources of water, et cet.), the drought environment, such as regions in Georgia, Florida, Nevada and California, has the highest market demand water conservation technologies for three reasons:

 
Timeliness
Fast Payback
Higher Water Rates

 
Timeliness
This is perhaps the most [...]

 
I came across a fascinating and informative document on a recent meeting between some associates from the University of Washington and the Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) regarding water rates and billing in Seattle.
The document’s notes cover a wide gamut, but basically I learned seven things that I think any landlord or property manager in Seattle [...]

(Feb. 23, 2009, On The Scene, Fox News)

In case you didn’t know, the Southeastern United States has been in a drought for the last several years.  The City of Atlanta was in danger of losing their water supply and many small towns in Tennessee simply ran out.  To keep the Southeast from going completely dry, [...]

(Feb. 17, 2009, AZCentral)
Cave Creek will hear comments Tuesday night on a proposed water-rate hike that could double the average user’s bill and tack on an extra $37 in service charges.
Under the new rates, an average customer’s bill could soar to $77 from $40.
Current residential rates per 1,000 gallons are $2.46 for customers in Cave [...]

(Feb. 13, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)

On Monday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposed accelerated water restrictions for Los Angeles — and the city got about a third of an inch of rain. In the past, showers were considered bad luck for a conservation push, but these days they are a fitting backdrop. We may get a [...]

(Feb. 3, 2009, News & Observer)
The Raleigh City Council will receive a report today that recommends creating a three-tier rate structure for residential water customers.
Under the proposal, which is preliminary and likely to be refined, customers would be charged 60 percent less than the current flat rate for the first 3,000 gallons of water. Raleigh [...]

(Photo Courtesy of Collectors-Badges.com)
Aguanomics water virtuoso David Zetland recently did a 26-minute interview with Bloomberg Radio that’s well worth listening to. Among a myriad of thoughtful points, one caught my attention in particular: The costliness of water rationing.
Zetland was referring to a tack Santa Barbara took in the 80’s during another big California drought, whereby [...]

(Jan. 1, 2009, The Valley Chronicle)
Two San Jacinto Valley water agencies are considering tiered-rate structures as a way to promote increased water conservation efforts…
Under EMWD’s tiered-rate plan, water allocation budgets would be established for each customer, based on their dwelling type, number of residents, square footage of landscaping, and actual daily weather and evapotranspiration data. [...]

Water shortages are being declared all across North America, such as in San Diego, CA today, Phippsburg, CO, Princeton, TX, Seabrook NH, Birmingham, AL by 2025, even in Stephensville, Canada, and water restrictions (voluntary and involuntary) are being put into place, such as in San Bernardino, CA, Kilgore, TX, Rocky Mount, VA, Greenville, SC, and [...]

What with the new higher water rates for San Francisco set for Tuesday, July 1, 2008, I thought it’d be useful to describe how your water bill is calculated by the SFPUC, and demonstrate how easily your water bill could double or triple due to a running toilet or two.
An SFPUC water bill is made [...]

“In my mind, money is always the biggest motivation for everybody. If you stick it to their pockets, they will fix the daily stupid things,” said the water works chief of Jamestown, Rhode Island last year, regarding Jamestown’s successful water conservation program.
And that is just what will [...]

Check out the US Drought Reporter and you’ll notice the Southeast in particular is suffering.
Yesterday the Associated Press ran a story that showed despite efforts toward water conservation, water rate hikes are being seen all throughout the Southeast:
In Glen Ridge, a small South Florida town of 275, water customers are facing a 15-percent surcharge.
“We’ve been [...]

Last year property management and real estate behemoth CitiApartments purchased my 17-unit-or-so Victorian apartment building, which is kitty-corner to the upper east end of Dolores Park in the Mission in San Francisco. Lately my toilet, which must be from the 80’s (built some 30 years ago, in a time when natural resources seemed infinite), [...]