City of Raleigh Delays Tiered Water Rates

Thanks to a wet spring and a cooler-than-usual summer, Raleigh escaped the severe droughts of recent years in 2009. But we cannot be sure it won't happen next year, or the year after. However, we can be prepared for future droughts. That's why the Raleigh City Council has made recommendations for water conservation.

One of those recommendations - implementing a tiered water rate system - was supposed to begin this December, after 18 months of planning. A tiered rate system means the more water you use, the more you pay. The goal is to discourage nonessential uses of drinking water such as lawn irrigation, which uses enormous amounts of our water. But City officials announced this week that they will DELAY tiered water rates until July 2010 - well after the causes of drought have manifested themselves. That means steps to prevent drought would not be in place until after we're already experiencing drought conditions!

WakeUP has expressed our disappointment with this delay to city officials and the press. Now we encourage you to ask the Raleigh City Council and Mayor Meeker to get this conservation effort moving sooner! Click here for Raleigh City Council email addresses. When you contact them, make these points:

• Tiered rates are a critical conservation step that the public has asked for.
• Lawn irrigation begins in the spring, so delaying the tiered rates until July means the new rate structure will have little impact on drought conditions next year. 
• Water rates were supposed to be increased at the same time as the tiered rates were to be implemented, giving citizens an opportunity to conserve water and keep their water bills low. Yet the City Council voted 5-3 to increase water rates, despite the delay in the tiered rate structure. So water users will pay more and get no incentive to use less - a lose-lose for citizens and the environment.

Current projections show that demand for water in Raleigh and eastern Wake County will exceed supply by 2040. We must take action today to extend water capacity for tomorrow. Bottom line: We need to plan for growth.

Mayor Meeker and Councilors Mary Ann Baldwin, Philip Isley, Nancy McFarlane and James West voted for the increase in water rates. Councilors Thomas Crowder, Rodger Koopman and Russ Stephenson voted against the increase.