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Washington County ONoodb~~+ set to audit wager hogs Move is latest to boost conservation By Bob Shaw bshuw@pioneerpress.com The Amazon.rain forest gets soaked with about 8 inches of rain a month. Yet, there is a single lawn in Woodbury that makes the rain forest look like adesert - sloshing with nearly three times that much water. "When we saw that, we were just astonished," said city spokeswoman Julie Lehr. "How could anyone be using that much?" To crack down on such water wasters, Woodbury is pioneer- ing a water~vnservation tool - water audits. Starting in mid-May, the audits will target the most prolific water users and ask them - in so many words -- why they are so if the water-users agree, they summer. Public Works Superinten- dent Dick Riemensclmeider said the conservation push is necessary not because of a water shortage but because of the high cost of delivering water. kbr example, the city is planning todig amillion-dollar well and is spending $4.3 mil- lion on a new 2-million-gallon water tower. That's why officals were out- raged tolearn asingle user --- a home in the ritzy Powers Lake Point area -used 471,000 gal- lons last summer. While their neighbors were installing low-flow shower- heads, the water hogs used five times mare than the aver- age Woodbury home. Other heavy users of water. include townhome associa- tions, Riemenschneidersoid. He is hammering out the details of the audit program but hopes to launch it in mid- May. If the targeted customers agree, they will be eligible for free rain sensors in addition to the visit by the conservation expert. The sensors, which the city buys for $541, shut off irrigation systems when the ground is wet The city is spending $7,000 on the sensors and is asking for $7,000 more from the South Washington County Water- shed District. Woodbury hopes to give away about 200 sensors this year. In a typical summer, about 12 inches of rain falls, and an average lawn needs about six additional inches of water, according tQ the University of Minnesota :tension Service. One problem for water con- servationists, Rieznenschnei- der said, is that the appear- ance of lawns doesn't suffer from overwatering. "You could have a quagmire out there, and it would not look bad," he said. will get a free visit by a water conservation expert who will tweak their lawn irrigation systems and suggest ways to save water. Woodbury is already one of the toughest aties in the state for heavy users of water. Last year, the city raised rates so the heaviest users would pay five times more per gallon than the lightest. The rates start at $8 cents per thousand gallons up to 30,000 gallons per quarter. They then escalate steeply for more con- sumption - up to $4.88 per' thousand gallons for usage aver ISO,oOD gallons. But despite the price hikes, Woodbury water use increased l0 percent in 2007. Officials Bald per capita water consumption is 54 percent more than. it was 35 years ago. And the increase is all in the