Paying to Waste

 

 

Three times a day, the road next to our apartment gets watered and I get to help pay for it.

 

I wrote a letter online to my rental company decrying the fact that I have to pay for the excess watering of our overly green lawn. Unlike any other apartment I have lived in, here in Williston companies like Weidner and Greystar, tack on variable costs up and above the monthly rent. The local staff here are friendly and very helpful and it isn't their fault. This kind of thing is above their pay grade, thought up by some corporate MBA who has no concept of the real world.

The charges for this month are:

trash charge 20.56

water charge 29.05

wastewater charge 20.23

stormwater charge 1.31  

While it is an impersonal dirty trick thought up by some fool  who has never rented in his silver spoon life, sitting high in some distant office, it feels personal. I would rather pay a little more of a fixed rent cost than be at the whims of whatever these variable charges might be.  

Since this is one of the more affordable buildings in town, many here, judging by the cars in the parking lot, are living on the margins of survival. It is dirty on the part of Weidner and the other companies that rule Williston rentals to put those at the bottom of the income ladder at the whims of several variable costs. It is like the return of the "company store" where residents are forced to pay whatever costs happen to be from day to day because there is no other choice.

A large percentage of the water runs off into the gutter, so I get to pay for the water three times. First in taxes to process it and ship it, second in the added water charge and third as wastewater. 

 

 

My outrage about paying for variable charges and wasted water aside, there is also the irony that I am forced to pay for the wanton waste of precious resources like water at a time of historic drought and climate change. While the west burns, farms fry and cattle go thirsty, I am forced to over water a patch of useless grass while sending most of the water into the sewer.

The irony of advertising sustainability in a bill for wasted water running into the gutters on the street.

To add ironic insult to injury, the bill was accompanied by the above letter extolling the companies "deep commitment to sustainability" and the self serving "green initiative" of paperless billing, listing amounts of trees and energy saved. Instead of hollow self serving sustainability, they would do better to engage in something that does real good like to stop overwatering the lawn and running water into the gutters. Instead of spinning saving the cost of mailing paper bills as some sort of altruistic love for the planet, they could actually do something real and stop wasting resources on the lawn.

As I sit and listen to the sprinklers watering the sidewalk and street outside my window, cars driving through puddles as if it were a rainstorm, I feel as if there is no point in even complaining. Corporate America will consume the earth until it is gone all for love of a green lawn.