Water use at record low for July
Despite a rising population and a one-third increase in customers over the past 10 years, the trend toward lower usage has hit a new low for July, what is normally one of the year's most water-hungry months. New figures released Friday by the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority show monthly sales of just 301 million gallons, or 9.64 million gallons per day, the lowest sales during the decade-long span for which the Hook has figures. The next-lowest July came in 2003, in the wake of a record drought, when the Authority flowed 9.86 million gallons per day. By contrast, consumers in July, 1999–- before the 2002 drought signaled how precious water is–- were using 13.51 million gallons per day. Ironically, one local group, Charlottesville Tomorrow, which has just been tapped by the Daily Progress to supplement the newspaper's coverage due to the group's allegedly impartial reporting, continues to insist (despite a decade of contrary evidence) that water use is climbing.
17 comments
Lame jab at Cville Tomorrow, one of the last impartial sources of information in town. I don't trust the Hook at all when it comes to reporting on the water supply, McIntire Park or the RWSA. They seem to only listen to a very very small group of misinformed citizens.
You're certainly correct there! Price hike in 3, 2, 1...
Posted at cvillenews.com. Find this to be very insightful
Crozet Resident
Aug 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
I concur with the earlier poster; this is just a further degradation of an already suspect local paper.
I think it takes great faithââ?¬â??almost religious faith ââ?¬â? to believe that stories can be written with no agenda seeping into the choice of terms, editorial discretion, and language.
Is the ââ?¬Å?nonpartisan” label that the DP chose to apply to Charlottesville Tomorrow an observation/opinion, a claim of the Cville Tom.. organization, or part of a factual story on the merger?
On growth, local activists from both political parties have played a roll in the explosion ââ?¬â?and public subsidization ââ?¬â? of new development rights in Albemarle. (particularly evident in Crozet).
Democrats pride themselves on being green and ââ?¬Ë?egalitarian’, supposedly through support of urbanization programs that intensify development in growth areas. Republicans pride themselves on spurring growth and public spending (conservatives love spending and taxes, if it is on development subsidies) on infrastructure, through these same urbanization programs. Different motives; same result.
With regard to the earlier poster, the leveling of old growth forest at Ragged Mountain has attracted the passions of both political parties in Albemarle. One political party sees a plentiful supply of water to feed a proud ââ?¬Ë?new urbanist’ victory. The other political party sees publicly-subsidized pro-business growth. Again, like urbanization, motives differ; results align.
Charlottesville’s politicians see the loss of Albemarle’s revenue sharing if they dare think independently of Albemarle on the Meadowcreek Parkway or Ragged Mountain, protecting Cville residents dwindling parkland. Could there be a reason why, shortly after Charlottesville’s politicians began to strongly reconsider the water plan, the DP ran a strongly-worded story from county staff questioning revenue sharing? I wonder.
I do read the DP and Charlottesville Tomorrow (and I occasionally wander in upon this blog).
However, I read all three sources of information from a perspective of who is behind the stories:
the DP is staffed by young, poorly-compensated, green sprouts of reporters who wait for Albemarle County’s staff to feed them their next ’story’; Charlottesville Tomorrow is funded by powerful rural landowners interested in new urbanism’s ability to protect the verdant peacefulness of their ââ?¬Ë?environmentally-sound’ rural McMansions; and ââ?¬Ë?cville news’ is run by a local Democratic Party activist.
That’s my editorial perspective. Cville Resident is right. This merger is more of the same, but it is not pretty.
I don’t trust Charlottesville Tomorrow at all when it comes to reporting on the water supply, or the RWSA. They seem to only listen to a very very small group of misinformed citizens.
"Let’s see, we are in the worst economic decline in eighty years..." which means that people stayed at home all summer and filled the kiddie pool everyday.
"...this has been the wettest summer in memory..." I remember wetter.
"...with record low temperatures..." who made up this factoid?
"NGIC is bringing many hundreds of new jobs to town" Which is still less than the number of jobs that have been lost in the manufacturing sector.
"UVA’s Board of Visitors is considering increased enrollment..." There is no evidence that UVA's enrollment will increase any faster than it is now, so, so what?
"Yeah, let’s use these recent flow numbers to make long term projections of the water we will require." Nobody with a lick of sense would try to project water consumption 50 years from now away, so, I'm not getting the point.
Jack, this is not an opinion piece it is based on data form the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. Do you dispute their numbers?
Let's see, we are in the worst economic decline in eighty years, this has been the wettest summer in memory with record low temperatures, and you think low water consumption in July is a trend. NGIC is bringing many hundreds of new jobs to town and UVA's Board of Visitors is considering increased enrollment. Yeah, let's use these recent flow numbers to make long term projections of the water we will require.
I don't think the current economy has much to with water consumption. Even though my average monthly water bill runs an outrageous $90 a month now for 6,000 gallons, it's still only 1.3 cents a gallon. It's the last place I would look when thinking about making cuts and saving a penny.
Who would have ever believed we would be paying $90 for 6,000 gallons of water in 2009? I am sure it will get much worse though when you have a monopoly providing the service and the top dog making $200,000 a year most likely.
I let my water run for the past two days so the usege will be up this month so we won't have to pay more! Woo Hoo I saved the day!
I Guess Betty Don't Know Jack!
I really think the rswa should consider adding a distillery to the water line. That is the ultamate purification out there, then I could take the filters out of my water lines and save a few dollars. No, we get meaningless lawsuits, huge studies that show or prove nothing but pleanty to talk about.
GGGGOOOOOOO DISTILLERY!!!!!!!!
@Jack , can you give any supporting facts for your opinion?
hey if it don't work Capshaw will buy it, fix it. And make star hill shine! get em Capshaw!
For a peak into how impartial Charlottesville Tomorrow really is --listen to this !
http://www.wina.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=3934646
This is not good news, IMHO.
It will probably prompt another price increase.
And if it wasn't for the Hook, how would anybody know what this small group of "misinformed citizens" has to say? It doesn't take a mental giant to see that something is broken in every direction we turn lately. Use less water for the last several years when requested to conserve..... pay more!!! Penalized for using less water, can you imagine that? Set new record lows in water consumption, by God, expect another price increase now!!!
Charlottesville Tomorrow is the media wing of the Democratic party. Just take a look at who the contributors and board members give their political money to and it couldn't be clearer.
@Big Boy
ââ?¬Å?Job losses have pretty much stabilized and that’s one of the positive things we can talk about,” he said. ââ?¬Å?The bad news is that, although we’re not losing jobs, we’re still about 4,200 jobs down from last year.”
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/article/biotage_moves_headq...
Does this trend indicate that we won't have any jobs in 50 years? Be careful with your conclusions.