City Water Fines, And Water, Down The Drain

Although people and dogs alike enjoy Roosevelt Park, the landscaping has cost city taxpayers $29,000 in 15 water-waste fines since 2011. Because Roosevelt has a historic designation, the city says it can’t remove the grass against the curb and water often runs in the street. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal) Albuquerque taxpayers have poured $470,680 down the drain in the past five years. Literally. That’s how much the city has been fined for violating the water waste ordinance, which applies to customers of the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. The issue came up when a Journal reader asked whether the city ever gets fined for wasting water on its landscaped medians after observing the “beautiful Academy median, west of Antares, (being irrigated) at 1:30 p.m.” And although that midday watering violation in June wasn’t recorded by the authority – ordinance requires that it catch water wasters wet-handed, so to speak – plenty of others have been.