While the East Bay Municipal Utility District is suffering the worst drought since its founding in 1923, its 1.3 million users face no danger of going dry anytime soon.
Advertisement
Beane told the San Jose Mercury News he has tried to cut back on water usage, but has a large landscaped yard.
George Kirkland, a retired Chevron oil executive, used 12,579 gallons of water per day – 48 times the district average and more than twice as much as Beane, according to the report.
Kirkland said late Thursday he had a leak that he was unaware of. “I certainly pay for it”, he said.
Kirkland, a former Chevron vice chairman and executive vice president, said his use soared because of a leak in a water line to the 2 acres of vineyard on his 4-acre lot.
“Three irrigation leaks were recently discovered and corrected”. Restaurants can only serve water to customers upon request.
Facing a severe drought, water utility companies in California have adopted excess-use penalties “to give high users a message to conserve”, Cuff writes. But a 1997 state law declared customer information private except under certain exceptions – including cases where customers are penalized for violating a distinct policy, water officials say.
The average water consumer in Beane’s area uses less than 250 gallons per day.
“Releasing people’s names who use excessive water to the public is wrong”, said Gregg Chorbajian, whose Danville household ranked ninth with consumption of 4,513 gallons per day.
The list released Thursday night was partial because not all customers are billed at the same time. His two-month bill for that use was about $8,546 – about $6,688 of regular charges and $1,858 in excess-use penalties.
Advertisement
The list of 1,108 names is not complete, according to Abby Figueroa, district spokeswoman, including only about a third of the district’s residential custormers. More names are expected to be released later this year.
