Palm Beach Water Hogs

We keep seeing all these juicy stories on water hogs--folks using massive quantities of water in the midst of droughts and water restrictions.

We couldn't resist this one from the Wall Street Journal on what the wealthy denizens of West Palm Beach, Florida, are doing in the midst of a Florida drought that has resulted in limitations on water use.

While we were aghast at an Atlanta water hog who was siphoning off 400,000 gallons a month for his suburban mansion, consider food magnate Nelson Peltz's 14 acre estate in West Palm Beach, which uses 21 MILLION gallons of water per year.

Or Dwight Schar, Executive Chairman of home builder NVR, who used 14 MILLION gallons on his six acre estate. (Well, at least you figure a home builder's got to have a nice looking property, right?) [FYI: the Curmudgeon has averaged about 85,000 gallons per year for his eighth of an acre estate the past three years.]

Unlike singer Jimmy Buffet, who had to pay a $100 fine for violating watering restrictions in West Palm Beach, these guys aren't violating any laws, restrictions or guidelines. Which goes to show just how ineffective such restrictions can be when it comes to the big guys.

Here's a solution we favor: charge $1/gallon of water--hey, that would be a bargain at the grocery store--once a residential user exceeds a number that virtually any normal consumer would never approach (say 25,000 gallons per month--more than double what an average household uses). We doubt that even Peltz would be willing to pay $20 million a year for his water.