New Water Usage Rates Reflect Water Use More Precisely

Precision water usage is a new policy in Jay, Maine this week.  With the adoption of the new water rating formula, some customers will be paying less for their water and sewage, some will be paying more, and some customer's rates will stay the same.  Mark Holt, Sewer Department Superintendent, said " Revenue lost by customers paying a lower fee is estimated at $62,000 and revenue gained by customers paying a higher fee would be $72,000."

The updated billing formula will use water consumption to rate how much to charge for sewage.  The base rate is going to be set at $250 for 3,200 cubic feet of water per year starting on July 1st.  Any amount above the base rate will be charged 5.58 cents per cubic foot. As an example, a customer using 18,000 cubic feet of water per year will be paying roughly $1,000 per year.  With the current formula that customer is paying about $600 for the same amount of water.  This new approach for raising customers who consume a lot of water will raise their attention and help bring water conservation awareness to the people of Maine.

The new formula also encourages customers to try and conserve water whenever they can,  Customers who are already very good at conserving water will receive a reward in the form of lower water bills.  Anyone using less than 3,200 cubic feet of water per year will see a decrease in their bill to the base rate of $250.  This is $65 less than the current minimum.

PepsiCo Rolling Out Web-based Software To Aid In Water Conservation

PepsiCo this week announced that they would be rolling out a new web-based software to help their farmers to save water and reduce their green house gas footprint.  It's called "I-Crop."  Developed along side with Cambridge University, it is a cloud-computing environment that PepsiCo is testing on 22 U.K farms.  PepsiCo has said they hope to reduce water usage and emission by up to 50% within 5 years.  Other goals the company has made include their addition of some low-carbon fertilizers and also replace the potato stock with some different varieties of stock to improve the farmer's yields and reduce wasted stock by the year 2015.

PepsiCo is one of the largest buyers of Britsh grown potatoes, oats, and apples.  Richard Evans, president of PepsiCo U.K said "Farming is in the DNA of our business.  We rely on fresh produce every day.  Finding ways to produce more food with less environmental impact is essential to our future.

See if your saving water by taking this month's poll about shaving in the sink at TheKitchenFaucet.com