Less rainfall, lower water bills in Stafford

STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. – It’s a double edge sword: officials want residents to have green lawns but they also need them to conserve water.

Stafford County leaders this week voted to charge residents less on their monthly water bills, temporarily suspending for 60 days the $23.55 per thousand gallon charge for residents who use more than 26,000 gallons of water each month.

Now the county will charge only $13 per thousand gallons if homeowners use over 26,000 gallons of water.

A county ordinance requires new homeowners to have their newly sodded lawns green before the home is approved by county inspectors.

Those watering costs can add up, said County Board Chairman L. Mark Dudenhefer, R-Garrisonville.

“To get approval, a yard has to be sodded and then the homeowner has to water all of the time, forcing their water bills up,” said Dudenhefer.

A homeowner with 1/3 acre of new sod to water, using about an inch of water on the yard per week, can cost as much as $400.

Though new rate might be friendlier to the wallets of Stafford County homeowners, officials say the lack of rainfall in recent weeks has caused the water level at the county’s Abel Lake reservoir to drop 15 inches below normal.

The reservoir continues to see a drop of about an inch per day.

“The summertime is a time when a lot of people are out water their lawns, especially now with the lack of rainfall that we’ve seen, but we think water conservation is something that is good to practice all year long,” said Stafford County spokeswoman Cathy Riddle.

In 2007, officials instituted a five-month water restriction that governed when Stafford residents could water their lawns. It ended in February 2008, and record springtime rains brought water levels at Abel Lake back to normal.

Dudenhefer says officials will closely monitor the reservoir’s water levels, but says Abel Lake has enough water in it, and that residents will not have to worry about mandatory water restrictions any time soon.