Who Says We Need Water

I was recently reminded why I dislike the government running things. Now I’m sure you are thinking, “Didn’t he use this forum to support government health care?” Guilty as charged but that was different. Health care does not operate in a free, capitalistic market and what we have is severely broken and getting worse. Now, let’s get on tack on track.

I had a water leak. So much so that I ran up a bill of over $2,000 before I knew it. Here is some background you need to know. In an effort to support conservation (with which I agree), the rate goes up with usage. The first 10,000 gallons for a month is priced at $2.50 per thousand gallons. After 15,000 gallons the rate has escalated to $8 per thousand gallons. I leaked over 200,000 gallons. (The oil leak in the gulf didn’t have much on me.) The net result being that I paid the $8 rate on just about all of it. The water company invited me to their board meeting to protest my bill. This sounded like fun.

The day arrived and I pled my case trying to get their sympathy as a customer and neighbor. They explained that the water was gone and somebody had to pay for it. I agreed and said I wanted to pay for what I used. However, my leak was more an act of nature than gross consumption. Therefore it would be reasonable to charge me the $2.50 rate rather than the punitive $8 rate. They countered saying I needed to pay my full bill and the reason is very logical. They have this rule book and the rule book says I have to pay. (At this point I paused and looked around. It appeared to be a pretty conservative bunch and I doubt they had any idea that I was the Grayson County citizen that had voted for Obama.) I said that I disagreed, that I didn’t think it was logical and that it reminded me of my worst fears about the new national healthcare. My fear is that I have an illness where there is a known solution but some government bureaucrat is reading out of a manual saying nope, we got to do this other thing that doesn’t work. I made my point but I sensed I was now losing the sympathy vote. They countered with "You need to pay for the water you use." I said, “I will, what does it cost?” To my amazement, not a single water board member had a clue what water costs. They knew that they spent $17,000 on electricity last month and that electricity was their highest expense, surprisingly more than the water. They knew they lost $42,000 in the first 4 months of 2010 but it should be made up in the summer. But they had no idea what a gallon of water cost them. I could have offered to calculate it for them, it would have been simple, but I was speechless. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and that they didn’t seem to think it was a problem. The water board didn’t know what water cost and could care less. Dumbfounded, I thanked them and left.