Report: Marco Island cutting back on water

After being labeled the most abusive water users in the state in 2005, Marco Island single-family home owners seem to have gotten the message.

A first quarter report on a new water conservation rate schedule aimed at curbing overuse of the city's limited potable water supply shows that residents are cutting back.

They used 43.4 million gallons less than they did during the first four months of 2005.

City officials attribute the cutback to a new five-tiered block rate schedule implemented in January to target a minority of residents who use more of the water.

Overall, single family residential water consumption for 6,351 homes is down 6.83 percent from January to April, as compared to the same time period last year, a report to the City Council from city Finance Director Bill Harrison states.

And the wealthier property owners who used up a huge portion of city water last year to irrigate landscaping on their large lots cut down their use by 14 percent, Harrison said.

In contrast, city water customers used approximately 592.2 million gallons of water from Jan. 1 to April 30, compared to their consumption of 635.7 million gallons during the same time period in 2005.

That good news comes after the city's water customers were tagged in 2005 with the dubious title of having the highest consumption rate in the state.

They used enough water to give each resident 500 gallons per day, where, in a city of comparable size, a normal average is 50 gallons per person per day.

But not every customer was to blame. Five percent of residential properties use more than one-fifth of Marco's water supply. An elite group of residents became known as "The 500 Club" because they number 523 utility customers—5 percent of total users — who consumed that one-fifth of the entire water supply.

Residents use an estimated 70 percent of drinking water to irrigate lawns. So city officials were quite surprised when overall water use dropped 6.8 percent during one of the worse dry spells in recent memory.

And that the upper tier of the conservation block — who comprise the worst abusers — cut back their use by 14 percent brought a lot of smiles to City Council members and city officials at the June 5 meeting.

"We have been pleasantly surprised at the results," City Manager Bill Moss told the council.

"It's very encouraging, especially during this time when we are enduring such a lengthy drought," Council Chairwoman Terri DiSciullo said.

"It's a lot easier to get people to use less water than it is to build storage facilities to provide more water," city Finance Director Bill Harrison said.

Moss said there are still some problem areas where users continue to use excessive amounts of water to irrigate their lawns. Those are mostly wealthy folk who can afford it, he said.

"These numbers represent people to whom money means something," Moss said.