Verde Park Not So Green

Conservation measures to cope with the higher water rates may include xeriscaping new areas at the cemetery on Sara Road, just east of the Intel complex, said Paul Daniels, vice president of operations for Daniels Family Funeral Services, which owns Vista Verde.

“We’re just going to have to make some changes in our business model with the water consumption,” Daniels said, adding that the company is committed to ensuring the cemetery looks beautiful, and the rate changes will not affect pricing for Daniels’ services.

The new rate structure city councilors approved last week will raise the cost of reclaimed (treated wastewater) Daniels uses to irrigate the Rio Rancho cemetery from 49 cents per 1,000 gallons to $2.30, effective Feb. 1.

Councilors who supported the higher rates say they are needed to bring in money to repair the city’s aging, leak-prone water pipe network. They say city residents who will also see an 8.8 percent increase in potable water rates, have been subsidizing the reclaimed water users’ low rate.

Under the new pricing, the annual Vista Verde water bill would jump from $5,981 – the total for 11,626,000 gallons used in 2012 – to $28,076, said city spokesman Peter Wells.

The rate in 2012 was 47 cents for half the year and 49 cents from July 1 onward.

And the price will continue to rise. The new rate structure contains annual increases that will take the reclaimed rate to $4.54 per 1,000 gallons in 2017. Assuming the same water use as in 2012, the annual bill would be $55,372 in 2017, Wells said.

Daniels said the company hasn’t developed a conservation plan yet. During the winter months, from about Thanksgiving to early February, they don’t typically irrigate.

“But in the spring, summer and fall we will have some usage,” Daniels said, “(and) our business model is going to change as far as future development of the cemetery. We will have possibly more xeriscaped landscaping.”

Currently, only eight acres of the total 24 acres Daniels owns at Vista Verde is developed.

Chamisa Hills Golf & Country Club, Rio Rancho’s only other reclaimed water customer, will not have to pay the higher rate until June 2014, when its pricing contract expires.
— This article appeared on page 19 of the Albuquerque Journal