Don't flush your money down the drain

How much water do you waste in your yard each month? And what is costing you?

Over the next several months, we plan to offer many ways you can stop spending you hard-earned money on wasted water.

Beginning with the basics: How well do you know your water bill? In order to cut your bill, you need to understand how it works. We will assume that you are familiar with the "total" line by now, so we'll move on to decipher the many fees down the right-hand side that amount to the figure you owe.

Water base fee: The first and usually most harmless is just a run of the mill, flat service fee.

Water usage fee: From December to March, water runs Phoenix residents $1.83 per unit. Measuring about 750 gallons, a unit equals the average output of three sprinkler zones over 15 minutes at some homes. The price per-unit goes up in the summer.

Sewer fee: This one is a tricky bugger. You pay $1.96 per unit to the city to treat water you return to the sewers. They figure this is about 80 percent of your average winter water use. The trick is that this fee is based on your three lowest water-use months, January through March. So, if you can keep your water use low enough those months, you lower your bill year-round. Next month's column will tell you how.

Environmental mandates: Per unit fees on both your water usage, 31 cents, and your sewer usage, 41 cents. These add up, but if you lower your water use you pay less.

Solid waste service: A flat fee to pay the nice people who haul your junk away.

Finally, city and state taxes, which pay for your freeways, jails and kids' educations.

We see some Phoenix residents wasting 20 units of water or more per month - due to bad watering schedules or broken, uneven sprinklers - occasionally adding up to hundreds of dollars in fees. We will tell you, the next few months, how to avoid being one of them. Taking the time to fix blatant leakage problems or calling in a professional to audit your system this winter pays off all year. Visit http://phoenix.gov/WATERSERVICES/index.html for tips from your Phoenix water department.

Allen and Brittney Walker are residents of Chandler. Allen owns Green Dreamin' LLC landscape repair, servicing Ahwatukee Foothills and the East Valley, and Brittney is a local writer. Reach them at (480) 862-4647 or awalker@greendreamin.com.