San Francisco PUC Offers Free Consultation to Help Customers Save Water
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SF PUC) is offering a free service to water customers in an effort to help them conserve water and, in turn, cash.
"We want to make sure that customers are saving as much water and money as possible," said Andrew Ho, a technician with the SF PUC.
During a Water Wise evaluation, a technician will survey a home or property to help fine-tune water systems and to ensure the customer is able to conserve effectively.
"This is a free service that is open to any home, business, resident or property that pays a bill to us or is in our retail service area," said Julie Ortiz, the water conservation manager for the SF PUC. "Our technician is going to walk through with the property owner and take a look at their plants, their irrigation and point out potential ways they could save water."
Despite having near normal stored water levels for this time of year, Ortiz says they have to plan ahead.
"We're pretty much at the end of the water year and we're not looking at much left so it's a very dry year, despite those winter rains. And again -- in California -- cyclical drought is just one drought ending and another one around the corner. It really is just a way of life here," Ortiz said.
On April 1, SF PUC water customers will start to see a 5 percent drought surcharge on their bills.
"That is a drought surcharge because it is effective when we implemented our water-shortage emergency. It was built into our rates to help us recover revenue from lost sales that go down during a drought," Ortiz said. "We're not making any profit off of it. It's just to recover the cost. It's temporary and when we're able to lift the water-shortage emergency call, the surcharge will be lifted as well."
KPIX spoke with San Francisco homeowner Peter Monks, who participated in a Water Wise evaluation. He explained that his primary motivation for fine-tuning his conservation strategy is not an issue of dollars.
"That's almost not the point. The point is really about saving something that we can't get any more of. There is no magical, press-a-button and we get more fresh water in the state. We just have what we have," Monks said.
WEBLINK: SF PUC Conserve Water