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Oregon's governor recently announced a water emergency, and some counties are implementing restrictions.
We're being asked to only water on odd or even days, depending on our address.
How in the heck does that conserve water? I water about every 5 days, which would result in alternating odd and even days, but is nowhere near as frequently as every other day.
This is an example of a dumb idea to solve a problem.
Why don't they implement tiered pricing, where the first x amount of water consumption is relatively cheap, while amounts exceeding that become exceedingly more expensive? They could make that tiered pricing only apply in the summer when we don't get rain.
I wonder how costly it would be to install smart water meters that can report wirelessly like power meters? It would need to stick out above the valve box in the ground, so that's a little tricky. It would allow people to see real time use though and probably help many people identify leaks they weren't aware of. Some sources say 25% of residential water is wasted to leaks or breaks.
Fixing leaks would do a lot more than a dumb "every other day" watering scheme.
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