The city of Lynnwood wants to do its part to conserve water.
To accomplish that the city will, for the first time, charge certain single family residences a conservation surcharge for using too much water.
The plan, which takes effect Feb. 1 when new water rates start, has led to a mini-feud between two City Council members.
Councilwoman Lisa Utter says conserving water is crucial and charging single family residences extra for going over an agreed upon water usage level is OK.
Councilman Ted Hikel disagrees, arguing that the plan unfairly singles out single-family homes.
“If we’re going to do a conservation plan, then that should involve all of our customers and not pick out one segment,” Hikel said.
Under the new water rate structure, once a household uses more than 2,000 cubic feet of water a month — equivalent to 15,000 gallons — an extra $1.83 is charged for every 100 cubic feet (750 gallons) used.
Public works staff say the conservation surcharge will only affect 3 to 4 percent of the city’s single family houses.
“My opinion is a good percentage of those people have leaks that they haven’t fixed in the past,” said William Franz, the city’s public works director.
But Hikel said the number of people affected by the extra charge is beside the point.
“If you own a swimming pool and fill it up, you’re going to have to pay a lot of money to fill that up,” he said.
Utter said if everyone conserves water, the extra charge won’t be an issue.
Lynnwood gets its water from the city of Everett’s water supply through a contract with the Alderwood Water District.
Ken Goodwin, director of finance for the Alderwood Water and Wastewater District said the water district, which provides water to thousands of Snohomish County residents not served by cities, does not have a conservation surcharge.
“We charge a little bit more in the summer than we do in the winter and that’s to discourage more use,” Goodwin said.
Utter said it’s high time Lynnwood got serious about water conservation as some other cities in the region have.
A state law, the Municipal Water Supply — Efficiency Requirement Act, encourages municipalities to implement water conservation measures.
A city consultant hired to review the water and sewer rate structure reported to council members that single family residences use more water than businesses or multi-family units.
William Franz, the city’s public works director, said it made sense to have single family residences pay the conservation surcharge both because they use the most water and because commercial user rate classifications vary so much “you can’t really set a price point.”
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