A1.4 Water use
Develop an incentive program (ex. technical assistance) to improve the efficiency of agriculture irrigation systems. Identify grant funding.
Currently, Olympia offers a non-tiered drinking water rate of $2.63/ccf in the winter and $7.73 in the summer for irrigation. (The summer rate is slightly higher than the $6.62/ccf that residential customers using over 1,400 cf/month pay, and is sharply lower than the $3.94/ccf that multi-family and commercial customers pay in the summer.)
Tumwater offers commercial customers the opportunity to install a separate meter for irrigation, but their website doesn’t say what they charge for that use. (It’s possible that it simply relieves them of the LOTT charge, since irrigation water doesn’t go to LOTT.)
Lacey has an alternate day summer watering policy to reduce peak demand on the system. They charge the same rates for single-family, duplex, senior, and irrigation accounts. They also give multi-family and commercial customers that use a lot of water a break, since those customers only have a two tiered system, with the same charges as other customers up to 600 cf/month, but no hike n the rate for use above that.
(In Eastern Washington, the State’s Irrigation Efficiencies Grant Program provides financial incentives – up to 85 percent of total project costs – to landowners willing to install irrigation systems that save water and increase stream flow in tributaries where Endangered Species Act listed species will benefit.)