LeakBird

(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 [...]

(March 16, 2009, Robert Stavins, The Huffington Post)

Throughout the United States, water management has been approached primarily as an engineering problem, rather than an economic one. Water supply managers are reluctant to use price increases as water conservation tools, instead relying on non-price demand management techniques, such as requirements for the adoption of specific technologies [...]

The average household US water bill varies widely from state to state and municipality to municipality.  Small town household water rates fall somewhere between $1.00 and $2.00 per 748 gallons of water or HCF (hundred cubic feet).  Large city household water rates are from $2.00 to $3.00 per 748 gallons of water.  (Nationally, water rates [...]

David Curran wrote a stimulating op-ed on the California drought in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle.  Mr. Curran expressed his perplexity at the incongruity of intermittent first quarter flooding in the Bay Area and the Governor’s dire “worst drought ever” declaration.
California has gone from being the bread basket of the US to a water crisis basket [...]

(Feb. 24, 2009, MSNBC)
Water and sewer customers can expect to see higher rates in March.
City commissioners adopted a new rate structure that could raise the average customer’s bill $5.46 a month.
Customers who live outside the city limits will be charged 25 percent higher rates, meter fees, deposits and connection fees.
City Manager Billy Poe said the [...]

(Feb. 24, 2009, Coloradoan)
Plans to ramp up water conservation efforts in Fort Collins include a couple of tried-and-true methods – education and financial incentives.
Putting those plans to work would likely mean higher rates for water customers even as average per capita demand for water decreases, officials say.
Using less water has broad impacts, including prolonging the [...]

(Feb. 18, 2009, The Water Blog, Portland Water Bureau)
Residents of Horse Creek Valley, South Carolina may soon get hit with a whopping 700 percent bill increase.
Yes, you read that right, 700 percent.
The 616 residential water customers currently pay a basic $3 water fee at a usage rate of 51 cents per 1,000 gallons. The proposed increase would set [...]