In regard to recent stories published by The Westbury Times about the Westbury Water District's new rate system, I would like to make a few points that seem to have been missed.

First of all, any customers that received a bill double or triple from last year, clearly used a tremendous amount more water. The Westbury Times neglected to point that out. It's all relative. If your bill at the supermarket is double the last one, obviously you bought more food!

Yes, the water district increased its rates when it switched over to the "step-rate" system in January 2001. This type of billing charges the customer more per gallon as water usage goes up. It is a rate structure recommended by the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation and used by most public water suppliers on Long Island. By charging the high-end user a higher price per gallon of water, we are encouraging water conservation, something the district has advocated for many decades.

Some water bills that went out recently, under the new rates, were sent to customers with 100' x 75' pieces of property that had used more than 200,000 gallons of water during the summer months. That is much too much water to be using to maintain a lot of that size. Those customers either have leaks or are grossly over-watering their landscapes. A property that size needs no more than 70,000 gallons of water during a six-month period to keep the grass green - slightly more during a very dry summer. A 70,000-gallon user under the old rates would have paid $70. With the new rate, the customer would pay $82.50.

As a service to its customers, it is not unusual for the water district to make a personal visit to any property to do a second meter reading, check that the meter is operating properly and inspect the premises for leaks. A toilet leak can waste 174,000 gallons of water during a 6-month billing period. Oftentimes, we are able to determine that a leak is the culprit. In fact, we have discovered a handful of leaks in customers' homes just in the past week.

When representatives of the water district and I met with members of the community on Nov. 14, we were verbally attacked and treated with the utmost disrespect. The atmosphere was hostile and vulgar from the moment the meeting began. We will not allow ourselves to be subject to such treatment again.

As an employee of the Westbury Water District for 36 years and past chief and volunteer member of the Westbury Fire Department for 37 years, I have attended hundreds of meetings dealing with a myriad of subjects. Never have I seen such an outrage and unwillingness to work together to solve a problem.

The Westbury Water District has no choice but to increase water rates. We are currently looking at floating a $6.5 million bond issue to keep our system in compliance with DEC and Nassau County Health Department regulations. A short time ago we underwent a $4 million project. We have a responsibility to provide customers with a safe, plentiful supply of water for drinking and firefighting. In the interest of public health and safety, we cannot lose sight of that. Where is the money going to come from?

Our customers have a choice regarding their water use. Some have leaks that have been neglected, some have no regard for the Nassau County sprinkling ordinances put in place in the mid-1980s and some have no interest in learning how they can have healthy landscapes while using less water. The new rates charge high end users (more than 100,000 gallons in a billing period) $2.40 per 1,000 gallons. The incentive is to use less water.

Anyone interested in learning more about how they can reduce their water bill should call the Westbury Water District office at 333-0427. We are here to help you and happy to oblige.

Italo J. Vacchio

Superintendent

Westbury Water District