Staten Islanders who try conserving water end up paying more - SILive.com

Staten Islanders who try conserving water end up paying more

by Staten Island Advance

Saturday June 06, 2009, 1:05 PM

Advance file photo/Bill LyonsNew Yorkers will be paying more each time they turn on the tap next year.

The agency that supplies your water and sends you the bill urges conservation and offers all kinds of tips for using less.

Follow the suggestions and a maddening thing happened: Your water bill goes up.

Crystal Sada is one Islander who follows the Department of Environmental Protection's recommendations to the letter in an effort to save water and, she assumed, keep her water bill down.

The West Brighton woman doesn't have a dishwasher, but she only uses her washer and dryer once a week for laundry. While she doesn't cut back on showers, her time spent under running water is shortened.

How is Ms. Sada being rewarded for her conservation efforts?

She'll get a spiked water bill next month and the increase could be as much as $300.

In May, the New York City Water Board backed the DEP's proposal and hit city residents with a 12.9 percent water increase set to begin July 1.

One of the primary reasons for the size of the increase is a reduction in water usage.

So the message is: The more you save, the more we will have to charge you.

Why was a hike in water rates necessary when people throughout the city are using less water? And why is the DEP already planning another 12-percent rate increase for 2010?

In addition to operating and budget costs, the DEP reasons that single-family home residents like Ms. Sada, whose current water bill runs "between $560 and $600 a year," will pay an "average of about $990 a year" because they are using less.

"This year's increase is primarily the result of nondiscretionary operating and maintenance costs, debt service on our capital program, as well as a significant decline in consumption, which may be the result of the current economic downturn," the DEP Web site notes.

"They tell people ... conserve, use less water," Ms. Sada says. "The fact that people did that, and they're still raising the rates for doing exactly what [DEP] said to do. All of our rates are going up anyway, but this just seems like insanity to me ... kind of like blackmail." 

via silive.com