Would you be willing to pay an extra buck a year on your water bills if the money were used to buy and protect land in the Highlands?

You'd be getting a real bargain.

The North Jersey District Water Supply Commission is considering an idea that would add a dollar a year to its customers' water bills. The money would go to paying off some $25 million to $30 million in bonds that would be used to buy unprotected Highlands land.

Here's why the idea is so good. For $25 million to $30 million, the commission, which operates the Wanaque Reservoir, could save from development a significant portion of the unprotected land in the New Jersey Highlands, an 800,000-acre tract that stretches from Bergen County's border with New York State southwestward to Hunterdon County. If this land were developed, the commission might be forced to spend billions of dollars to treat the water pollution that would result.

In other words, the commission's customers can either spend an extra dollar a year now to help preserve the land, or spend far more in the future to rid their water of pollutants caused by development.

Commissioners would have to approve the plan for it to take effect. If they do, water users would be big beneficiaries.