Water usage to be re-evaluated based on seasonal residents, tourists

Steve Peulicke installed desert landscaping at his mom’s Palm Springs home two years ago to help her cut back on her water bill.

“She’s on a set budget and it helps her out with other bills,” Peulicke said.

The change has already saved her big money.

“The bill is probably half of what it was,” Peulicke said.

Every little bit helps the Desert Water Agency cut its total water usage. But while the state asked for a 36 percent reduction, DWA says the water board overlooked a big chunk of the valley’s population.

“This area is really dense with tourists and seasonal visitors and the way the numbers are calculated, those people aren’t taken into account,” said Katie Ruarak, spokeswoman for the Desert Water Agency.

Ruark testified before the state water board Tuesday, asking for permission to re-evaluate the agency’s “gallons per capita per day” with statistics on visitors. Currently the GPCD is 220, but Ruark says at least 30 percent of customers are seasonal residents, and thus are not accounted for.

“We want to talk to agencies that monitor tourism and seasonal residents and get data collected to submit to state to show them hard facts on how many people live in the Coachella Valley,” Ruark said. She believes adding these part-time residents and tourists, will lower the GPCD to 160.

The hope is to get mandatory water use cuts down from 36 percent to 28 percent, which Ruark said would be more attainable.

Still, cutting water use by about a third takes a big chunk out of water agency revenue, which eventually could impact your bottom line if the drought persists. Meaning you could be using less water, but spending more to do so.

“If we take a big hit to our revenue, it’s possible it could impact revenue because we do have pipes to maintain we do have pumps to maintain,” Ruark said.

Ruark added a change to rates wouldn’t happen quickly, and customers would get to weigh in on a change through Proposition 218.

“They’re going to do what they’re going to do, nothing we can do about it,” Peulicke said. “I’m okay with it, if it helps the drought, definitely.”