Raleigh NC is experiencing a drought (Raleigh wants to conserve water):
Rainfall for this month is four inches below normal for the month as recorded at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Falls Lake, Raleigh's primary drinking water source, is almost five feet below its normal level.
As of Tuesday, there is enough water for 104 days in the lake; there are 103 days left in the year.
"We need to take steps now," Mayor Charles Meeker said.
So, obviously, the price of water should rise to reflect its increased scarcity and to promote conservation. Right?
Wrong:
The city urged its 350,000 water customers Tuesday to cut their water use by at least 10 percent.
...
The city is asking people to:
- water their gardens and shrubs the minimum required and use recycled household water when possible;
- check for leaks in toilets and faucets and repair them immediately;
- store drinking water in the refrigerator to avoid running it until it is cool at the tap;
- take short showers;
- turn off faucets while shaving, brushing teeth or rinsing dishes;
- install water-saving or waterflow restrictive devices;
- wash only full loads in clothes washers and dishwashers;
- limit car washing;
- limit hours of operation of water-cooled air conditioners.
These voluntary things don't work so well.
The last time the city asked residents to cut back on water use was in 2002. Crisp said customers immediately started cutting their water use, though it crept back up.
Eventually, the city had to enact mandatory restrictions, which lasted until mid-October.
Raleigh knows this, so:
It also gave City Manager Russell Allen the authority to issue mandatory water conservation measures if the city doesn't have enough water supply to reach the end of the year.
Mandatory measures would go into effect if the number of days left in the year exceeds the number of days of supply in the lake.
Those restrictions would limit when residents could water their lawn, ban the filling of pools and prohibit washing cars at homes.
Restaurants could serve water only when a customer asks for it. And hotels and motels would ask guests spending more than one night to use their towels and bed linens more than once between laundering.
I'll be watching the N&O headlines to see when those mandatory restrictions kick in this year!
Why don't the regulators simply raise the price of water? It must be because consumers prefer mandatory restrictions to higher prices.
Why do consumers prefer mandatory restrictions to higher prices? Maybe it's because the costs are more difficult to quantify. In other words, I can easily determine if my water bill goes up by $50. It is more difficult to determine when my time costs go up by $50. [Behavioral economics, anyone?]
Note: Quotes presented out of order to promote, as Tim likes to say, dramatic effect.
