4 ms·

At first glance, this may seem to criticize a particular religion. But it doesn't really, and it is an interesting story I learned a lot from. I never knew th

At first glance, this may seem to criticize a particular religion. But it doesn't really, and it is an interesting story I learned a lot from. I never knew that in Utah, there are two separate freshwater systems: treated drinking water like you have everywhere else, and untreated "secondary water" for lawns and irrigation. There is no meter on the secondary water. You can use all you want, and only pay a flat rate per year.

octoberfranklin 4y ago
> I never knew that in Utah, there are two separate freshwater systems: treated drinking water like you have everywhere else, and untreated "secondary water" for lawns and irrigation. Lots of places have this, because what you're paying for is sewage treatment, not water. Water on your lawn goes into the storm drain and doesn't need to be treated (San Francisco is an outlier here). Putting a meter on your house's sewage outflow is not gonna fly. Imagine dealing with it getting jammed... Also people would be tempted to cheat by dumping their sewage "elsewhere", and you really don't want to incentivize that. In the Pacific Northwest water is basically free, but sewage treatment is insanely expensive. The soil has far too much clay for ground disposal of the treated wastewater, so it has to be treated up to a much higher standard appropriate for waterway discharge. This is slowly bankrupting many small towns.