Most Vero Beach island residents who keep their lawns green with reuse water will see their irrigation costs double this fall, but recycled water will remain a tremendous bargain for another four years for John’s Island, the Moorings and the Riomar Country Club.

Rates for reuse water users, almost all of whom live in communities along A1A on the barrier island, will jump Oct. 1 from the current 64 cents per thousand gallons – which has been the rate
for years – to $1.22 per thousand gallons, with further increases planned annually until the current rate triples to $1.97 in 2011.

This will put new pressure on the 2009 budgets of homeowners associations whose residents get reuse water for their lawns as part of their association fees.

But John’s Island, the largest purchaser of Vero Beach reuse water, the Moorings and the Riomar Country Club all have 20-year contracts that will keep the price they pay for recycled water at
a bargain 32 cents per thousand gallons through 2012, according to Robert Bolton, director of the city’s water and sewer department.

Bolton told the Vero Beach City Council, which unanimously approved the rate increase on August 21st, that the hike in reuse water charges is needed to cover the costs of producing the reuse
water, and making needed repairs and upgrades to the reuse water system.

Reuse or reclaimed water is water that already has been used once in the public water supply. After treatment, it is recycled and while no longer suitable for drinking or bathing, or even for discharge
into the Indian River Lagoon, it is widely used on the barrier island for irrigation.

Bolton said the reuse system was launched in 1992 as a means of complying with laws mandating changes in the disposal of waste water, and thus has been operated until now on a subsidized basis.

But with Vero Beach currently constructing a multi-million-dollar deep injection well to dispose of treated wastes thousands of feet below ground, Bolton said there no longer is any reason to
subsidize the reuse water system “and it needs to stand on its own.”

“We are looking at rate increases over the next four years to get us to the $1.97 that is needed in 2012,” Bolton said. He said the reuse water rate could have been raised to that immediately, but “we thought tripling the rate would have sent a little bit of rate shock, so this practically doubles the rate for the first year, and then you have small incremental increases after that until we meet the actual required revenues in 2012.”

Bolton said it was not possible to raise the bargain rates enjoyed by John’s Island, the Moorings and Riomar Country Club prior to that time, “but once those contracts expire in January and February of 2012, they will start paying the higher rate also.”

While Council Member Debra Fromang said some constituents had complained that the increases were“punitive,” Bolton argued that using reclaimed water for irrigation is still a bargain compared to use of potable water.

If someone is using roughly 30,000 gallons of potable water a month to irrigate their lawn, “they probably are paying $100 or so on their water bill while right now you only pay $18 for reclaimed
water,” he said. “With this rate increase, users of reclaimed water will now be paying $36, so it’s still considerably lower.”

In a related development, we may get a hint in September as to whether the St. John’s River Water Management District will back away from plans to impose tough new restrictions for the first time
on use of reclaimed water.

Under proposed new regulations, residents utilizing reuse water for irrigation — as well as those using potable water— would be allowed to irrigate lawns only once a week during the winter season
and twice a week during daylight savings months.

Several dozen cities including Vero Beach have turned out at public hearings this summer to oppose the proposal, and sources said they thought St. John’s might back down while pressing forward with a plan that would require specific irrigation days linked to your address.