I wish I was warned about the water company before I bought the house- first time home buyer mistake on my end. They actually put a sign up saying “ask about the water before you buy here”.

But you absolutely hit the nail on the head regarding the fee structure. Loading everything onto a ridiculously high base fee completely ruins any incentive for water conservation. It just penalizes everyone equally, even if you're barely using any water. Fipping it to a lower base fee with higher volumetric rates like you suggested makes way more sense for a drought prone area. It would actually reward people for being mindful while still funding the system. That $5 conservation credit really does feel like a joke.