Now might not be the best time for the city of Bend to change the way it charges residents for the water they use. With a major, multimillion-dollar water system upgrade in the works, officials have calculated the way they’ll pay for the improvements and don’t want to try anything that could throw the numbers off.

That’s both understandable and acceptable. When you’re in the process of shelling out somewhere between $40 million and $60 million in water system improvements, plus another big chunk of change on sewer system fixes, knowing where the money’s coming from is critical.

However, the idea of switching to a billing system that charges more per gallon of water as a household uses more has a certain appeal. If, for example, you want people to use less, one quick way to get there might be to do just that. It’s an idea the city has looked at before.

Yet the change could have unintended consequences, says City Manager Eric King. In fact, a system that ramped up charges as use went up might well be a boon to large users and a problem for smaller ones.

That’s because the city now charges a flat rate for the first 400 cubic feet a household uses, $33.04 for 30 days. After that, all users pay the same rate for each additional 100 cubic feet of consumption, one that’s higher per cubic foot than the fixed rate is.

As a result, on a sliding scale system where a homeowner must pay for each cubic foot of water used, smaller water users might well see bills go up. At the top end of the scale, for the city’s major users, King said the opposite might actually be true, and water bills could fall.

The city does plan to look into the way it bills for both water and sewer, but not just yet, King said. Rather, he expects a review to begin sometime next year, perhaps in spring or summer. A look at both rates makes sense, he said, because equipment is now available to gauge not only how much water goes into a home but how much goes back into the city’s sewer system.

It does make sense to look at the issue, however. If officials can find a way to make rates reflect usage without hurting customers who use less, total consumption could go down. And, living on the edge of a desert, as we do, that’s a good thing.