Editorial: Water conservation

Chalk up another example of the power of publicity. Now it seems to have stunned water-wasters on Marco Island to start kicking the habit.

This time last year city officials took a look at the water consumption records and determined the island was home to some of the biggest water-guzzlers in the state. They were using 500 gallons of drinking water per person per day rather than the normal statewide average of 50 gallons per person per day.

Plus, only 5 percent of all the users were consuming 20 percent of the product.

City officials learned about 70 percent of the drinking water went to irrigate lawns — a statistic which, while high elsewhere too, always makes us cringe.

So, amid a nasty dry spell, use reductions in the 7 percent range islandwide for the first quarter of the year are quite satisfying.

Maybe a rate hike for the heaviest consumers has something to do with this too.

Still, we wonder whether Marco would be recording conservation gains had consumers not taken the time to fully understand what was going on — and then responded cooperatively.