{"id":1298,"date":"2009-05-17T13:01:47","date_gmt":"2009-05-17T21:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=1298"},"modified":"2009-05-17T13:01:47","modified_gmt":"2009-05-17T21:01:47","slug":"californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/17\/californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers\/","title":{"rendered":"California’s Water Meter Rebellion Withers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"City
City water conservation specialist Marilyn Creel shows Fresno resident Mary Ann Evans how to adjust her sprinklers to point them away from the sidewalk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Monday on The California Report, Central Valley Bureau Chief Sasha Khokha tracks one city’s longstanding rebellion against water meters–and says the day of reckoning is nearly at hand. Listen to Sasha’s story here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I admit it. I wanted to do this story because I saw so many of my neighbors watering their driveways. What I learned is that unmetered cities are a long and slow-dying tradition in the Central Valley.<\/p>\n

Martin McIntyre, who used to head Fresno\u2019s water agency, explained how vehement anti-metering forces swayed voters and banned meters in the city charter:<\/p>\n

“They were really false arguments. The simple phraseology was ‘meters are taxing machines,’ and they\u2019re going to use meters to fund city hall activities. And, in fact, as is the case for all municipal water supply systems, the funds collected from ratepayers by law can only be used for the operation and improvement of the water supply system. Nonetheless, that resonated with some of the public and it was very easy for a handful of people to get prominent headlines above the fold simply by saying city hall is taxing us to death.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

State lawmakers overrode Fresno\u2019s rule, because they understood that cities with meters use less water.<\/p>\n

Ellen Hanak, a water researcher with the Public Policy Institute of California<\/a>, has found that metered cities use about 15 percent less water than unmetered cities. And cities with a tiered rate system save an additional ten percent on top of that. In addition to usage, her report compares different cities’ water rates<\/a>. Of course, San Franciscans get away with using less water because–guess what? Many of them don\u2019t have front yards.<\/p>\n

Hanak crunched statewide residential water rate numbers<\/a> and determined that more than half of San Joaquin Valley residents don\u2019t have water meters. (For further details, read the survey disclaimer<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

But meters are coming, one way or another.<\/p>\n

There are basically three laws that will eventually require the entire state to install water meters. One says that all homes built after 1992 must have meters. Another dictates that cities that get federal water (like Fresno) have to install meters by 2013. And yet another law says that all<\/em> California cities (including holdouts like Sacramento) have to be metered by 2025.<\/p>\n

Fresno <\/a>is gearing up to install its first meters this year. They\u2019ve even created a handy Q&A<\/a> for skittish customers.<\/p>\n

And if you thought Central California was the only laggard, this might make you feel better: many Chicago residents don\u2019t have meters, either.<\/p>\n

But they probably don\u2019t have the sprinkler ladies–who can fix any leaky, squeaky, spritzy sprinkler, and make sure it\u2019s pointing away from the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

\"KQED\u2019s
KQED\u2019s Sasha Khokha braves sprinkler spray to record Fresno\u2019s city water conservation team at work. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sasha Khokha tracks one city’s longstanding rebellion against water meters–and says the day of reckoning is nearly at hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[234,435,633,654],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-1298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-business","category-water","tag-fresno","tag-policy","tag-urban-planning","tag-water"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia's Water Meter Rebellion Withers | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/17\/californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California's Water Meter Rebellion Withers | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sasha Khokha tracks one city's longstanding rebellion against water meters--and says the day of reckoning is nearly at hand.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/17\/californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-17T21:01:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2009\/05\/adjusting-sprinklersm.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sasha Khokha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@KQEDSashaKhokha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sasha Khokha\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/17\/californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/17\/californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers\/\",\"name\":\"California's Water Meter Rebellion Withers | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-17T21:01:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-05-17T21:01:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/852614210b1e70c4126fa8d5953edeb8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/17\/californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/17\/californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/05\/17\/californias-water-meter-rebellion-withers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"California’s Water Meter Rebellion Withers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/852614210b1e70c4126fa8d5953edeb8\",\"name\":\"Sasha Khokha\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/a618c14ba6eae92537853a5d6fc6c9e5\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e4b5e1541aaeea2aa356aa1fb2a68950?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e4b5e1541aaeea2aa356aa1fb2a68950?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sasha Khokha\"},\"description\":\"Sasha Khokha is the host of The California Report's\u00a0 weekly magazine program, which takes listeners on sound-rich excursions to meet the people that make the Golden State unique -- through audio documentaries and long-form\u00a0 stories. 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