[Vision2020] Water: willing to conserve but can't afford to

[Nils Peterson]

Tom Ivey illustrates at least one type of person who would occupy the middle
position in my "Where do you stand" thread: willing, but unable.

Thanks for the lawn-related suggestions. They sound cost effective.

The toilet upgrade plan discussed earlier, if funded by new water users as I
offered, might work for Ivey. He would get a new throne and the feel good
from saving water, with no cash outlay.

My wife points out that she has heard there is an issue for some older homes
whose plumbing does not work well with low flow... We are guessing that
things just don't move along well with less water.

So, the City's program would need a means to evaluate a home for being a
candidate to participate. Not much different than the phone company
investigating if you can have DSL.

So, what we have here is a voluntary program that saves water, at no cost to
the would-be saver, and transfers the savings of water to a would-be new
water user when they get a building permit.

What is missing to put this into action?
1. Deciding to adopt and become strict about adhering to the PBAC water
budget.
2. Building the mechanism to swap the toilets (or other conservation
measures)
3. Securing funding for #2.

Anything missing?
Does this list have the political will to support this idea?
How would you go about selling it (or defeating it)?


On 4/25/06 10:06 AM, "vision2020-request at moscow.com"
<vision2020-request at moscow.com> wrote:

> In regards to the last issue "where do you stand":  I want to conserve.  But
> it costs me more to conserve than I can afford.  The cheapest rain barrel I
> can find is $100 plus shipping, I need at least 4 of them. I don't have the
> money to purchase a new front load washer and would have a hard time
> justifying it without an old broken one.  I can't afford to put in a sprinkler
> system (I would love to have one).  Sure, I got a 3% increase in pay this
> year, but my groceries, gasoline, clothing, health care insurance, and
> basically all consumables have increased this year by more than 3%.  I pay
> twice as much for water as my counter parts in southern Idaho.  And I just
> found out I will have to pay out $4000 on braces for a child.  What do you do?
> Where do you start?  I have low flush toilets and a water saver shower head
> (you can get that shower head free from the city!).  What else can I do?