Water Users Targeted

JACKSONVILLE -- As Jacksonville baked through a drought worse than the wildfire-marred spring of 1998, high-use water customers of city-owned JEA just kept on flushing, watering and generally going with the flow.

Peter and Lee Ann Rummell continued to irrigate their 2.2 acre property in San Marco, using 2.4 million gallons at their 9,600-square-foot riverfront home. That's more water than an average JEA customer would use in 29 years.

Howard and Fran Coker watered, poured and sprayed 2 million gallons at their nearly 2-acre residence on the St. Johns River in Arlington, 24 times the average customer's use.

And Susan and Donald Blaser gushed another two million gallons since last summer over their one-acre riverfront home in San Jose --- partly due to a leak, she said.

In May, JEA officials approved a targeted rate hike aimed at slowing the flow among such high-end users after state regulators asked the utility to do more to encourage conservation of the Floridan aquifer.

Now the question is how much the rate hikes set to take effect after the summer will affect high-end water users.

Officials with the St. Johns River Water Management District, which oversees water use from the Floridan aquifer but cannot mandate rate charges, called JEA's new plan an improvement but also one with "deficiencies" because it affects only 3 percent of the utility's 244,000 customers.

JEA officials, such as Vice President Randy Boswell, said the rate hike coupled with existing sewage charges that affect even lower-use customers would encourage conservation. "We have a lot of folks who say it won't, but it will," Boswell said.

But some of JEA's top users, identified through a database obtained from the JEA, say they can't guarantee much will change.

"I am going to maintain my property so that it looks appropriate for the area that I am living in," said Howard Coker, a Jacksonville lawyer who helped earn an $18 million plaintiffs' award in 1996 from a national waste management firm. "If government decides that I need to pay more to do it, then I will."

Several top Jacksonville area water users said they hadn't realized they were considered among the highest, attributing their high use to large lots, homeowners' association rules mandating well-kept lawns, and, quite often, to leaks.

Susan Blaser, who said the higher rates "probably will" affect her usage, attributed her high use over the past 12 billing cycles to a "pipe burst" at her 4,240-square-foot home that cost her an extra $1,000 in water consumption charges from JEA.

That $1,000 charge represents the use of less than one million gallons. The Blasers' total usage was more than two million gallons.

"We only irrigate when we need to," said Blaser, who said she sets her sprinklers to automatically spray the lawn three times a week. "We try and be wary of it."

Her household used 200,000 gallons or more in five different months last year, according to the JEA database.

Rummell, the CEO of St. Joe Co., a timber and real estate development company in Jacksonville, used an average 300,000 gallons a month in June, July and August, according to the database.

"Oh my," Rummell said, when contacted about his use. "We own a double lot. We have a big yard. It is probably from irrigating all that grass." Rummell said he doesn't have automatic sprinklers and determines himself how often to water his lawn, usually two or three times a week. Experts consider that a better approach than automatic sprinklers, which can contribute to wasteful use of water.

Rummell, whose property includes large green lawns on the side and back leading down to the St. Johns River, said he would consider installing a well now that he would pay several thousand dollars more annually to JEA.

"I've toyed with it," Rummell said. "Will this force me to go to a well? It might."

High water users continued to receive their biggest bills during a nine-month period when Jacksonville was receiving half the 40 inches of rain it normally receives.

The city is still experiencing the effects of a significant rainfall deficit dating back to August, assistant state climatologist David Cierden said. The nine months have been drier than any stretch in 1998, when rampant wildfires south of Jacksonville marked what Cierden called one of the worst droughts in a century in Florida.

Temperatures this week were expected to stay high, in the 90s, as the area stays dry -- with no significant rain in the immediate forecast. Lawn irrigation typically surges during these periods, water district spokeswoman Teresa Monson said.

Water district officials will ask its governing board in July to mandate further residential watering restrictions that would limit irrigation to twice a week as part of a long-term strategy to protect the aquifer, she said.

The restrictions would be in addition to existing limitations in place since 2000 that restrict lawn watering to before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. Irrigation accounts for a majority of wasteful water usage among high-end users, district officials said.

"When people use water, there are uses that are non-discretionary. People have a real need for cooking, cleaning and bathing," district water use regulations director Dwight Jenkins said. "And there are discretionary uses, such as irrigation."

Most households use about 3,000 gallons a month for basic needs, while the average household in JEA's service area throughout Duval County and parts of outlying counties uses a total of about 7,000 gallons a month, according to JEA.

JEA would receive an additional $10 million to $15 million under the new higher rates if customers' use does not change, but the utility did not enact the rate hike to increase revenues, Boswell said.

The utility inserted brochures on conservation titled "When Less is More" with customers' bills. Among other things, it tells customers that the more water they use, the less healthy grass roots can become.

Jenkins said JEA might get better results if it had enacted broader rate hikes. For example, a St. Johns County utility charges $4 per 1,000 gallons for small water users as well as large ones, Jenkins said.

Most people don't realize how little water grass requires to thrive, Jenkins said.

The University of Florida's cooperative extension service recommends sprinkling three-fourths of an inch of water on lawns once or twice a week in the hottest months. If water is evenly distributed, this use can equate to as little as a couple hundred thousand gallons a year on a third-acre lot, published materials said.

A handful of local governments have made great strides by passing ordinances outlawing water-wasting home association landscape rules and implementing water-saving ones for commercial properties, Jenkins said.

Claremont in Lake County, within the St. Johns district, requires new commercial properties to install a new water-conserving type of grass.

At a recent public hearing on JEA's rate increase, about 20 residents turned out to argue against the change affecting higher users. Many said they should pay the same rate because they already pay more to use more.

"We don't think we should be penalized just because we have nice lawns," said Richard Massey, a homeowner at Pablo Bay off San Pablo Road that advertises homes up to 5,000 square feet. "That is what I think is the most unfair."

When contacted, most high water users said they try to use as little as possible. Linda Stanley did not return messages, but her sister said the household's 1.7 million gallon water use is due to a large lot, and a leak of an unknown size.

"She was horrified to know that water leaked," said Susan Stanley, who shares the 6,210-square-foot home on a 1.25-acre lot off San Jose Boulevard with her sister.

But in his experience, Jenkins said limited rate hikes have a limited effect on conservation. "The impact these things have is to make water go from almost free to cheap," he said. "It works for some, it doesn't work for others."