I received an interesting email today from a woman in a town on the Oregon coast. She and her husband, both in their late sixties and on Social Security, were having trouble paying their water bill. Seems their rates had recently gone up dramatically to fund a new wastewater treatment plant.
She told me the city manager had been sympathetic to their plight but was unable to help any further. The state of Oregon could not help. A local charity was helping them with their power bills but had no money for their water bill (I thought water would be more important than water). Now they are being threatened with service discontinuation and are at wits' end. She asked for my help to write a proposal to someone or something to obtain support not just for them, but also for all low income people in the town.
I felt badly but couldn't think of anything to do, except for proposing lifeline rates and/or a fund to which ratepayers could contribute help low income people.
She had never heard of such things, and I sent her links to the City of Olympia's program and the City of Tumwater's program. I also found a link to an EPA publication that does not deal exclusively with lifeline water and sewer rates but does have some information on utilities with lifeline rates/programs.
Here is some affordability information from EPA with a link to a report:
Download Water_Affordability_4004
And here is a 2002 paper prepared by EPA for DC:
Download 2009_05_26_waterinfrastructure_pricings_AffordOptions
She was enthusiastic but thought that the very conservative City Council might not go for such a plan.
My curiosity has been piqued now. I told her to keep me informed.
Stay tuned.
“I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.” - Dr. Jonas Salk
I'm new here and just read this story. It is sad. One thought that occurred to me is that every day I get emails from folks wanting me to sign petitions, for various causes, directed to various rule- and or decision-makers--I have seen that some, if not many, of these online petitions have been successful and some very quickly especially if they get big numbers fast. I would suggest that this could be useful here to effectuate change. Some sites include: Change.org, care2petitionsite, SumOfUs, Credo action. Post the story particulars here or email me and I will start a petition.
Posted by: geohydro2011 | Saturday, 01 June 2013 at 08:05 AM
The solution to this problem -- as practiced in some countries and advocated by economists everywhere is to help POOR people with water bills. Lifeline rates are often difficult to define or do well.
Posted by: Account Deleted | Sunday, 28 April 2013 at 01:32 AM