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Use too much, and you'll pay four times the usual rate By TONY BOOM ASHLAND - Responding to severe drought and a water system that is consuming more than it's taking in on a daily basis, city officials on Thursday activated costly penalties for excess water use. City officials implemented the first of four possible curtailment stages to ensure an adequate water supply through October. The change took effect immediately. Residential and commercial users will have a maximum water allotment. A surcharge four times the regular rate will be applied for excess use. The monthly limit for homes is 3,600 cubic feet, equivalent to 26,928 gallons, in the first stage. A home that used 5,000 cubic feet in a month would have an additional $113.12 added to its bill. Use limits for businesses vary depending on the size of the water hookup. City officials say most residential users are "well within" the limits, which allow 900 gallons per day per home without the premium price. City officials estimate a typical person "needs" up to 120 gallons of water per day for normal personal activities, and the remaining allotment can be used for landscape irrigation. Use levels have averaged 5.71 million gallons per day for the first two weeks of August, while daily high temperatures averaged almost 93 degrees. Ashland residents used an average of 5.58 million gallons per day during July when high temperatures averaged 87.4 degrees. Voluntary "water waste" provisions, designed to help avoid curtailment, went into effect July 9. Water use dropped after the City Council approved the provisions. "We tried real hard not to go to curtailment, but we need everyone to make the next big step," said Public Works Director Paula Brown. "Hopefully the community will respond again like they did the first time." Officials want curtailment to bring average use below 5.3 million gallons per day through August, and 4.8 million gallons per day in September. Reeder Reservoir is at 76 percent of capacity. Ashland Creek's flow into the reservoir is 2.5 million gallons per day, but Brown expects that to be less that 2 million gallons per day by the end of August. Reeder water is supplemented by 1.4 million gallons of Talent Irrigation District water daily. That water delivery is expected to end in the first week of September. Letters were sent at the end of July to 834 users who exceeded first-stage curtailment amounts on their latest bills. The city has a few more than 7,000 connections. The waste provisions remain in effect. They include limited hours for watering outdoor plants, no runoff on or washing of hard surfaces and use of nozzles when cleaning vehicles. Restaurants should serve water only on request. Residents can call the city to report waste. Door hangers will be used to notify citizens of wasteful practices. Blatant disregard of the waste provision can result in a citation and fine, Brown said. Succeeding curtailment stages limit homeowners to 2,500, 1,800 and then 900 cubic feet per month. Use over the limit is billed at four times the normal rate in the second and third stages. In the last stage, use is billed at 10 times the regular rate. Water can be shut off in the last stage for excess usage. Ashland has never gone beyond the first stage of curtailment, Brown said. It began a curtailment on Aug. 11, 1992, that lasted about a month. Curtailment was ordered in 1994 for two weeks at the end of August. A lack of conservation or increased use for other purposes, such as fighting a fire, could bring about stage two, Brown said. Brown gave permission to the U.S. Forest Service to use up to 100,000 gallons of Reeder Reservoir water to fight the Quartz Fire, but the agency has not used any of that allotment. Water-use audits for customers are available from the city's Conservation Division. Reach Ashland bureau reporter Tony Boom at 482-4651, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.