Raleigh may get tiered water rates — finally, after suffering thought all kinds of water-use restrictions to combat a severe drought:
Raleigh’s flat, relatively cheap residential water rate is about $2.13 per 1,000 gallons a month.By contrast, Cary’s four residential water rates rise from $3.28 per thousand gallons a month for the first 5,000 gallons to $5.33 per thousand gallons a month for a consumption range intended to cover a typical home’s irrigation needs. It also has a penalty rate more than double that for extremely high users.
“The tough thing about utility rate policy is that not everybody agrees with it,” said Karen Mills, Cary’s finance director. “You have competing interests and priorities, and you have to try to balance that as well as you can.”
But Cary’s leaders endorsed tiered rates in the late 1990s, when the town’s water-treatment capacity was tight. It has kept them in place since then, which has bolstered the town’s other water-conservation policies.