In a discussion of water rate increases yesterday, City Council members and city staff admitted they have been asleep at the spigot for years regarding our water system’s infrastructure. That’s not the way they put it, of course, but the circumstances make it clear that’s what happened:

The money is needed for capital projects, including fixing aging pipes that lose millions of gallons of water a day. The city would need to bring in $31 million to $43 million a year over the next five years to be able to pay for those projects. The proposed rates would cover that, barring severe cuts in water consumption.

From the above we know that we’ve been losing millions of gallons of water daily because city leaders have ignored a deteriorating water system. We also know from yesterday’s discussion that, absent the current drought, city leaders would still be ignoring the problem.