I don't think a flat rate for water is wise. Water is much more valuable in the desert than in the swamp.

I think also there needs to be a consideration regarding to composition of discharged water and the manner is which the discharge is being performed.

How do you propose measuring both water supplies and discharge.

When I lived in Florida I had a shallow well that I used to irrigate my lawn. It was completely unregulated for most of my time there until we had watering restrictions. With the watering restrictions, I was still exempt from the restrictions because it was connected to my water to air heat pump that cooled my house. I was grandfathered in because of the date of the system installation. More modern systems were required to return the discharge to the shallow aquifer with a down well but were still allowed to be used for irrigation but only on the every other day schedule dictated by the watering restrictions.

Water conservation and utilization is very complicated and is beyond simplification. Changes are happening and more are coming. We will be much more conscious of water use in the future.

TEK