Grazing the Non-Commons
19.08.09
How comprehensively selfish of you to water longer because they take away one watering day. It is grass. Grass will survive on 1 watering a week. If it does not, well, fantasize of the consequences of putting too much of the scarce resource into your yards - less water for drinking, cleaning, firefighting.
Raleigh, NC had a 2-yr drought which poor within the past year. They used a combination of economic and regulatory changes to limit habit. First came the lawn watering and car washing limitations. Next, the tiered water usage. Basically, if you use what is considered a conventional amount of water (based on figures available from the city), the rates stay reasonably low. Start using more, and the per gallon bawl out increases. Use a whole lot more, and it gets really expensive.
Was it a perfect solution? No - I don’t believe there was a way to judge a one-person household from an 8-person household, so singles (like myself) did not have to conserve to stay in the crop pricing tier. That 8-person household - they’d have to be very conscious of their usage.
Source: New York Times Blogs