Water costs are on the rise and the Placer County Water Agency can do more to empower customers to avoid future costs through economic incentives.

Residents of Auburn have recently been faced with the increasing costs of water, both on the supply side (PCWA) and the wastewater disposal side (city of Auburn). While these cost increases may have shocked many, the inescapable fact is these costs primarily reflect what we, the customers, demand — sufficient quantity and quality of water supplied to our homes and sufficient capacity of our sewage treatment plant to treat wastewater flows. Objecting to proposed cost increases is too late in the game to avoid increased costs. Changing what we, the customers, demand is the more effective way of heading off the future shock of water costs.

Residents can exercise controls to help decrease water quality costs by being good stewards of the environment and not using the sewer system to dispose of substances that cause discharge problems at the sewage treatment plant.

This is much a matter of personal responsibility and our community is blessed with organizations and initiatives that reinforce the importance of water quality.

Residents can also exercise controls to help decrease water quantity costs through water conservation measures — pure and simple, just not wasting water. Water conservation can yield a doubling of cost benefits; less water supplied and less wastewater generated. Again, this is a matter of personal responsibility. However, our community is not as blessed with organizations and initiatives to reinforce water conservation.

The PCWA has implemented programs to increase customer awareness and response to water quantity costs. Such measures include new meters, rebates on low flow toilets, low flow showerheads, billing that shows water consumption trends and tiered escalating water rates. However, the way PCWA structures its charges for service falls short of reinforcing water conservation by households.

Take a closer look at your PCWA billing and let them know of your position now.

Jim Bennett

Auburn