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City of Oly irrigation rate for community gardens
My understanding is that as a Community Garden without a residence attached, the Olympia Community Garden pays a significantly higher water rate, an irrigation rate, than say a homeowner. Currently water is currently our greatest expense and a significant hurdle to growing food. If food sustainability is a goal we should have a more encouraging water billing rate than someone who is watering their lawns.
I will try and make this an agenda item for the April 25 meeting between the Olympia City Council and Sustainable South Sound.Charles Adler
- Charles Adler Olympia Community Garden's blog
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I actually brought this up myself in a discussion at the Utility Advisory Committee just a few months ago! (We were discussing some other rate issue, though, not community gardens.) What I discovered at that point is that while the rate per hundred cubic feet of water for irrigation is slightly higher, signing up for an irrigation meter means that you don't pay any wastewater charges, so it's actually significantly cheaper than regular metered water, even though it doesn't look that way on the water rates sheet...
Maybe it should be cheaper still for community gardens, though...
(In my limited experience so far on the UAC, one recurrent issue in rate discussions is what the current billing software can and can't do. The City's going to upgrade that in the next few years, so this is a good time to try to get any changes that might involve quirky billing settled...) If you'd like some more details, I'd suggest calling up Liz Hoenig, who is the Public Works staff liason for the UAC (and is really terrific). 753-8152
Best,
Thad