Combining systems a solution

We wouldn't envy anyone on the county's water systems over the next four years. Even with the consolidation of the county's systems most of their customers will see their water bills increase over the years.

That's because most of the county's customers are in the East Valley Water System, which serves the equivalent of 1,570 homes.

All three Tahoe water systems combined only serve the equivalent of 1,071 homes.

By far the most affected customers are those members of the orphan water systems, in Jobs Peak, Sheridan Acres and the fairgrounds. With 181 homes between them and three very troubled systems, those folks are looking at paying some pretty outrageous costs if nothing's done to help them.

That help will come in the form of charging residents of the largest water system more to help those in the smaller ones.

In the world of water and sewer systems in Douglas County, the trick was always to make new growth pay for the infrastructure and have rates pay for operation and maintenance. There are some serious problems for those small water systems. The fairgrounds system has an arsenic problem, Sheridan Acres has a long checkered history and if someone connected a syrup dispenser to the Jobs Peak water system cola would come out of the tap.

We suspect that if water consolidation fails to go through, all county residents will be footing the bill to fix the smaller water systems with their tax dollars.