I have reread Mayor David Condon’s new water rate plan, and shake my head every time. I keep rereading it thinking I must not understand!

He wants to reward people for using more water and charge more to people who use less water! He is doing this so that we can “keep the city green”!

I might be a little more supportive of this concept if I didn’t see lawns being watered in the rain or at 2 p.m., when the evaporation rate in the hot sun exceeds absorption rate. There is also no way to know how that water is being used.

Are we going to have a green lawn patrol? Maybe someone wants to refill his backyard pool with new water every week because the filter isn’t working correctly, or has a toilet that continually runs clean water down the drain.

Water is our, and the world’s, most valuable commodity, and while we seem to have plenty, the supply can disappear at any moment from a natural or man-made disaster.

I didn’t see anyone water less last year when rates were based on a flat usage scale. There were plenty of green lawns. Or perhaps some will choose to replace that green, high-maintenance lawn with a low-maintenance yard full of beautiful native plants and a drip system, as I did.

A gallon of water is a gallon of water, and everyone should pay the same amount for that gallon.

Rosemarie Duffy

Spokane