A Massive Willow Grows in My Yard

 

        

In the spring of 1999, I came back to Grants Pass and bought a house for my family. Our first winter, my yard was flooded, so I picked the lowest spot and started digging a small pond when the yard dried up and set up drainage to the street.  I picked a twig off of a huge twisty willow down the street and planted it right away near the pond.  Twenty-six years later, it is as massive as the tree it came from.  It is about fifty feet tall and wide, and five feet in diameter, at five feet.

The unit price of water has been hiked every year since 2005.  Sometime in the next decade, our City Manager decided that sewage needed unit prices, saying, “It’s only fair that everyone pays for every gallon of water that goes to the sewage plant.” 

It is not possible to meter sewage.  Since people don’t water in the winter, the average winter water use per household would be our sewage usage for the year.  It didn’t take long for winter to be expanded to five months, from mid-November through mid-March.

My willow tree has grown a lot in the meantime, because it takes water from my pond, and I keep it full.  This year, March was warm, and the tree leafed out earlier than normal.  March took 40 units, which made the average for the winter 21 units. 

None of that water went to the sewage plant.  Nor does the water that fills my fountain, which waters the birds.  I challenge those charges.

To be continued.

         

5/20/26, published at GardenGrantsPass.blogspot.com.

Like Ratepayers for Fair Water and Sewer Pricing on Facebook.

To be posted on Facebook, Nextdoor and X.com

 Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040              rycke@gardener.com