In what has become a regular occurrence, the San Antonio Water System today released its list of residential customers who used the most water from May through November 2012.
The list, which reads like a Who's Who of prominent San Antonians, including the likes of David Robinson (actually his wife Valerie), Sean Elliot, Peter Holt, and even a few lawyers. As usual, the San Antonio Express News published the list online and in its print edition.
In the online edition (mysa.com), the caption for the list states that the water consumption occurred "while the city was under Stage 2 drought restrictions. During that time the use of an irrigation system, sprinkler or soaker hose was limited to one day a week between the hours of 3-8 a.m. and 8-10 p.m. Despite the limitations, these 100 customers used 87.8 million gallons of water, enough to meet the demand of 1,611 average San Antonio homes."
Each time the list is published, I can't help but wonder about SAWS' purpose in publicizing the information:
Does SAWS want to humiliate and guilt prominent citizens?
Does SAWS relish in highlighting the vast consumption and overall lifestyle differences of the Alamo City's "haves" and "have nots?"
Perhaps the motivation is far less sinister, and SAWS simply seeks to provide "negative reinforcement" for those using what is generally considered an excessive amount of water.
While the drought lends some creedence to the latter, the list is by no means new, and is published in even the wettest of years. The effectiveness of this strategy is even debatable, since many of the list's members make perennial appearances.
As might be imagined, the residences where the large quantities of water were consumed aren't your average San Antonio homes on cookie-cutter subdivision lots. Many of these homes include acreage, sit on large lots in the Dominion or other of San Antonio's most prestigious neighborhoods, and have large swimming pools.
Further, the consumers of this water are some of SAWS' bread-and-butter customers who pay higher rates as penalties for large consumption. Like most water utilities, SAWS employs "conservation rates" based on consumption. As evidenced by the chart below (taken directly from SAWS' website), residential customers using large quantities of water pay progressively higher rates as monthly consumption increases. Doesn't SAWS depend on these excess usage rates to balance its budget and seek expensive new supplies of water?
| 2012 MONTHLY VOLUME CHARGE | ||||||
| INSIDE CITY LIMITS RATE PER 100 GALLONS | OUTSIDE CITY LIMITS RATE PER 100 GALLONS | |||||
| Step in gallons | Standard | Seasonal | Standard | Seasonal | ||
| First 5,985 | $0.0948 | $0.0948 | $0.1234 | $0.1234 | ||
| Next 6,732 | 0.1372 | 0.1492 | 0.1784 | 0.1940 | ||
| Next 4,488 | 0.1935 | 0.2219 | 0.2516 | 0.2885 | ||
| Over 17,205 | 0.3388 | 0.4597 | 0.4405 | 0.5975 | ||
In SAWS' defense, San Antonio's water utility is one of the nation's very best at employing conservation. They have made conservation a household word in this City, and have programs to back-up their media campaign. In addition, the consumption of individual customers is, arguably, public information under Texas' Public Information Act. However, the Act is not implicated until a request is made to a governmental body, and I have not seen any evidence that SAWS has received such a request...EVER.
Thus, the question remains: Why the List?
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