Water, Water, We’d Be Out of Business Without It

There’s was some well needed precipitation in some parts of the west earlier this year, while buckets full of rain fell and created floods in other parts of the western and central states. However, in the south west, we could see ourselves in big trouble. In parts of California the rain fall has been far below average. The specter of drought has once again raised its ugly head

Some portions of the west’s most populous state, California, are already suffering from severe drought conditions .The recent wild fires in northern and central California can be seen as evidence. The plants and trees on every hillside are so dry that small fires are not staying small they explode into huge conflagrations in just a matter of minutes.

Q?:, What’s that got to do with the coin or card operated laundry business, and why are we writing about it in the News?          A. We’ve been around long enough to see an old familiar pattern developing, and want to offer a warning to those who do not remember and a reminder to those who do.

If water districts and local water boards react, as many have in the past, there will soon be calls to conserve water. They will seek to convince the public to cut down on their water use. At first this will be done by advertising and other forms of persuasion. If it works, you can count on them raising rates to make up for their loss of income due to people using less water.

 

There is another reaction often taken by local water boards that is even scarier. They will attempt to reduce water use by limiting the amount of water that can be used by individual businesses or homes.

In other words, water rationing.

It has certainly happened before in cases of so called water emergencies. Let’s not forget the late 1970’s. Some of the laundry operators in northern California had to close their doors early in the month to avoid confiscatory charges being leveled by the local water districts there for using more water than they had been allotted.

When an individual home or business uses more water than they are allotted, they are penalized by progressively higher water and sewer fees. Once the rationing quota amount is reached, laundries typically shut down because the overage surcharge is greater than the potential profits a laundry can earn by staying open. This has been the pattern and history of rationing in California, and elsewhere.

 

For Laundromat operators, this is really a “been there, done that” situation. They once again face a need to explain to local water boards and districts that laundries practice water use efficiency all of the time. Even when there is no shortage, the rising cost for water with accompanying high sewer rates dictate being water efficient, or you won’t survive. There really isn’t much any Laundromat operator can do about drought conditions. Sure they can cut off leaks or drips taking place in their place of business, and that will save a little water. Some operators can lower washer water levels and that too could save a bit.

The best thing a laundry operator can do to keep financially afloat is to contact their local water officials to educate them on certain facts of life about the importance to the public of keeping coin laundries open.

The ideal situation is to have several laundry operators in an area work together to inform their water officials about how efficiently coin laundry owners use water. They should also relay information about how the public will react by increasing their use of coin laundries during a drought.

When regulators put big penalties on exceeding water use limits, the public reacts by using coin laundries as a way to save their own allotment for such preferred uses as gardens, lawns, car washing, and longer showers or for whatever their personal preferences are.

This public reaction to water shortage causes immediate increases in laundry water use and the penalties for exceeding water quotas can place coin laundries in financial jeopardy.

One should never fail to tell water authorities about the public health benefits of coin laundries. Where else do the young married, poor, elderly transient and lower income families go to do their laundry? If there were to be heavy restrictions on water use, with heavy fines for exceeding those restrictions, some coin laundry businesses would have to close as soon as their water quota for the month was used up. Having those coin laundries closed would deprive many coin laundry clients of their ability to get the laundry done. Not a healthy situation and a genuine public health issue.

Water executives would have to consider what the consequences would be for the public before deciding what their water conservation policy should be. But, will they consider it if no one reminds them of it? This is an instance where local coin laundry owners will have to act on their own to make sure that the water officials are contacted and alerted to the public health aspects of laundry industry operations.

Water Board members may not be big time politicians, but since they are usually elected to office, they respond like politicians. None of them want to be accused of taking actions that hurt the young married, students, elderly and poor by reducing access to the coin laundries they must use.

 

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