In recent years, local groundwater has supplied 70-80% of Crestview demand, and the rest was imported. This year, because of the severe drought, we need to rely solely on groundwater and import nothing. We can achieve this if–averaged across users and months–we use only water in Tiers 1 and 2.
The 2022 billing schedule allocates all our groundwater pumping rights equally between Tiers 1 and 2. Crestview is allowed to pump 748 acre-feet or 244 million gallons during the year. That is 97,600 gallons for each of our 2,500 outstanding shares, or 8,133 gallons per month per share. Our monthly bills reveal that (with a little rounding down) we get 4,000 gallons per share at Tier 1 rates and 4,000 gallons in Tier 2. The average customer has about 3 shares, and can buy 24,000 gallons per month in Tiers 1 and 2.
Now look at your recent bill and see how many gallons you are allowed in Tiers 1 and 2. Multiply by 12 and that is your personal 2022 share of (relatively) cheap groundwater. A customer could go into Tier 3 in the hot, dry summer months without making our problem worse by avoiding Tier 3 by the same number of gallons in the cooler, wetter months.
Kudos if your annual consumption will be less than that. You have saved money and made a positive contribution to our company’s drought solution. If you are likely to exceed that allocation at yearend, please act now. Buying any imported water in the next 12 months would require all of us to cut back watering to only one day per week and pay much more per month for less water–because that is how the trickle of State Water Project water is being rationed.
This explanation is not intended to disagree with or modify Crestview’s directive that every shareholder should reduce consumption this year by 20-25% versus 2021. We are only providing a way for you to judge if you are part of the solution or part of the problem—and by how much.
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