Industry, schools, homes all using less city of Emporia water
By Jeremy Shapiro
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Sales of tap water in Emporia have slumped 11 percent this year and city leaders aren’t exactly sure why.
Industrial water usage slipped 17 percent, church usage is down 18 percent and the amount of water being used by Emporia State University and the Emporia School District has fell by 21 percent. Residential usage is down 2.9 percent.
“We thought 2009 was the low point,” said City Manager Matt Zimmerman. “We thought we bounced off the floor because our water billing was up 4.6 in 2010. Whatever bounce has gone away. We have plummeted through the floor. We are down 11 percent from 2010 through the end of May. We are down 5 percent from 2009, our lowest year ever.”
The decline in water revenue will likely impact several facets of the 2012 budget, which city staff and the Emporia City Commission are in the initial planning stages of.
During a study session this morning, commissioners received preliminary budget information for the water, sewer and solid waste funds including all requests by those department heads. Commissioners will begin discussing budget specifics June 29 and changes to these funds will likely be made in July before the budget is adopted in August.
Zimmerman said Tyson is by far the largest water user in the city. When they announced the closing of slaughter operations in 2008, the city prepared for an monstrous drop off in water usage.
Tyson dropped from 62.6 million gallons of water used in May 2007 to 25 million in May 2008. But the decline didn’t stop even after the plant cutbacks. The company used 20.2 million in May 2009, 18.2 million in May 2010 and 10.5 million last month.
Pick up the Thursday Emporia Gazette for the complete story.
truelovecharlie (anonymous) says...
prepare for an increase in your water/sewer bills. They complain about too much usage and ask you to conserve but now they realize it hits their budget, so prepare to pay more for less.
June 8, 2011 at 1:28 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scarlett01_98 (anonymous) says...
that was my thought, it goes up every year. just pick a reason, your bill goes up at least once a year. sometimes twice.
June 8, 2011 at 1:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
This is almost too funny.
Remember a while back the city manager told the commission that the old meters were probably not accurate and needed to be replaced because they were not reading correct usage? I guess after spending a million or two on new meters, we are discovering the old ones were indeed, not accurate, they were running usage on the heavy side.
A suggestion to the commission;
Instead of raising water and sewer rates and shuffling that money to the general budget, just go ahead and raise the mill-levy. We have been expecting it for some time now.
June 8, 2011 at 1:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scarlett01_98 (anonymous) says...
hi steve! did the city get all the meters replaced?
just watch, the trash rates will go up next
June 8, 2011 at 2:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Good point, Steve. I remember the same complaint from the city that the water meters were not reporting correctly, even over reporting usage. By golly, they weren't getting their fair charges for all that FREE water we were using. Why, they even adopted some kind of new dilly whopper to read the meters without getting out of the truck. Uh huh, but it seems those new meters are reading the real honest usage rate.
So now, after years and years of overcharging us for water, they want to cry about an 11% slump.
Ha! You've been OVERCHARGING US FOR YEARS. YOU OWE US MONEY. PAY UP!
June 8, 2011 at 3:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scarlett01_98 (anonymous) says...
afternoon create!
that reminds me of what a business man said a few years ago, if i lose this battle, i'll just raise my prices and get my money back 3 fold...
June 8, 2011 at 3:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
GreatDayEmporia (anonymous) says...
Aaaaaagh, water conservation is a good thing!!
It seems like it would be embarassing for Matt Zimmerman to be publicly promoting water usage as a source of revenue, especially when a drought disaster declaration is in effect for half of Kansas. Afterall, isn't the city is supposed to act as a trusted steward of Emporia's non-renewable resources, not a salesperson?
Maybe the problem wasn't with the old water meters, but with his planning.
June 8, 2011 at 3:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
railroadhorn (anonymous) says...
I'm hearing Tyson may not be done with layoffs this year. Maybe that accounts for the decline.
June 8, 2011 at 5:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
93shocarguy (anonymous) says...
My water/sewer/trash bill has gone up considerably over the past several years, nearly every year. Now the dump...sorry transfer station charges a minimum of 5 bucks every time you go. The city raised rates a couple years ago when Tyson and Dolly put in some device to help them use less water. What gives??? When will this stop?
June 8, 2011 at 6:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Free4all (anonymous) says...
Since Tyson has cut back on water, are things getting properly cleaned as they should? Anyway thats anouther headline saved for anouther day. Great points everyone, Conserve then pay for it. Poor city management, spend money on fancy meters only to loose money, spend on a piece of rock and loose money. Most employees who spend a companies money foolishly like so would be replaced. Here it's job security.
June 8, 2011 at 7:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
frsaffer (anonymous) says...
May I suggest the City check the multipliers on the new large user meters. Perhaps they are even using the wrong multipliers for the the residential 5/8 inch meters. Many times when new meters are installed, incorrect mutlipliers are reported in the billing system. With the huge use reductions, other than Tyson, there is probably a meter problem. Has anyone checked the accuracy of the meters that were replaced? Just a suggestion that might forestall a water & sewer rate adjustment.
June 8, 2011 at 8:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
scarlett01_98,
I think less than 2/3 of the new meters have been installed. I think the city is doing a third of the meters each year, and they started last year.
I wonder if ANYONE considered the possibility that new meters would result in less usage readings?
June 9, 2011 at 8:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
Looked back and found a article about this.
http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/20...
It is pretty good reading and the comments are a hoot. I was way off in my predictions, If you all have time give it a look-see.
June 9, 2011 at 8:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scarlett01_98 (anonymous) says...
afternoon steve,
if less than 2/3 of the meters replaced, and the water usage has gone down, then imagine the loss of revenue when they are all replaced..
i read the old thread. it was good reading. just my thought, but i see tyson closing completely in the near future. then what will the city and the water revenue do? btw water out in the county is outrageous too....
June 9, 2011 at 1:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bluebonnet (anonymous) says...
Why are there two threads on this article? The other one shows the full article, but it only has a couple of comments from reddog.
June 9, 2011 at 2:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bluebonnet (anonymous) says...
Steve, I just read the article you posted. So nice to see comments from biscuitboy.
June 9, 2011 at 3 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
For the last several years, water, trash and sewer rates have steadily increased in Emporia.
This fact, and some pretty creative bookkeeping, have given the commission the political cover of telling the people, "We have kept your mill-levy down in these hard times".
Making a profit off of water, trash and sewer service is all and well, using that profit to then fund general operations is o.k. also. Just be upfront about it.
During the last campaign for city commission much was made about "transparency" in government. So what's it going to be, folks?
If there is no way, (or will) to make any more cuts in the city budget then just raise the mill-levy rates and be done with it.
For our city leaders to pat themselves on the back for keeping the mill-levy low while raising rates for essential services is pretty disingenuous, don't you think?
June 10, 2011 at 6:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
Please don't think I am advocating higher taxes. But if we had to pay a higher mill levy, maybe more people would object to the costs and become a little more involved.
June 10, 2011 at 6:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Diana (anonymous) says...
Over the next couple of decades, many government entities will need to consider how they tax any of the utilities in order to maintain the infrastructure. Windmills, solar panels, better construction design, smarter landscaping, rain barrels, etc. will all change the way citizens use electricity, natural gas, and water, especially as the changes become widespread.
If, for example, the sewer system is maintained primarily by water revenue, and the revenue goes down, those sewers still have to be maintained properly or the whole city will have problems. A new way of generating revenue will have be created.
I have heard rumors that in the KCK area, BPU requires anyone with a windmill to sell the power they generate back to BPU for a a credit, but I don't know if that's true. Still, the rumor demonstrates the issue - we have this century-old utility/revenue system in place, and we may have to make some big changes to it in the very near future.
June 12, 2011 at 12:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )