Typically, water utilities’ budgets are funded by revenue
collected through water and sewer rates. Revenue generated by
rates covers the costs of operations, as well as ongoing upgrades
and repairs to pipelines, treatment plants, sewers and other
water infrastructure.
State legislation also has affected the water rate-setting
process by requiring new processes for altering water rates, as
well as by requiring water conservation, which in turn decreases
the demand for water.
Local water bills might not be going up quite as sharply next
year as expected. The [San Diego] County Water Authority’s
board tentatively shrank a proposed rate hike for wholesale
water from 18 percent to 14 percent on Thursday — despite
concerns the move could hurt the water authority’s credit
rating. An increase in wholesale rates will force nearly every
local water agency to pass on the extra costs to its customers,
but just how much gets passed on could vary widely. Some
agencies buy less wholesale water than others, especially those
with groundwater basin storage or other local water supplies.
The board delayed a final vote on the proposed 2025 increase to
its July 25 meeting, but a coalition led by the city of San
Diego had enough support Thursday to reduce the increase to 14
percent. It would be part of a three-year set of rate hikes
that would cumulatively raise rates by more than 40 percent
when compounded — if the board also follows through on a 16.4
percent increase in 2026 and a 5.7 percent increase in 2027.
Thursday [June 27] is doomsday for water prices in San Diego.
That’s when the region’s water importer – the San Diego County
Water Authority – debates whether to boost its prices a
whopping 18 percent come Jan. 1. The price increase is massive
compared to previous rate increases, and the Water Authority’s
biggest customer, the city of San Diego, is pretty ticked off.
… San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria directed his powerful
contingent of 10 water board members to fight the increase. We
won’t know how hard they’ll fight until the full 33-member
board meets Thursday afternoon to vote on it. Gloria’s
administration is building a water recycling project, which
costs billions of dollars. Once its built, in 2035, San Diego
won’t buy as much water from the Water Authority. But for now,
San Diegans are saddled with the cost of building water
recycling and purchasing expensive water from outside city
boundaries.
Ramona Municipal Water District directors approved water rate
increases for customers starting July 1 and will decide whether
to continue raising rates each year through fiscal year
2028-29. The rate increase was approved at the water district’s
June 11 meeting by a 4-1 vote with Director Gary Hurst opposed.
The new rates for the 2024-25 fiscal year are based on volume
of water used, monthly service charges and water pumping costs,
according to a staff report. The average water bill will
increase from roughly $129 per month to $142, an increase of
about $13.68, said the water district’s Chief Financial Officer
Joe Spence. But the actual charges on a water bill will vary
depending on the volume of water used each month and the size
of the customers’ water meter.
The letter that brought down Adel Hagekhalil, the general
manager of the Metropolitan Water District, is getting buried
by the news it generated. Politico first revealed
… claims of dysfunctional management and harassment led
the Metropolitan Board of Directors to place Hagekhalil on
administrative leave and appoint an interim general
manager. Hagekhalil is probably done. Environmentalists
are worried Metropolitan’s establishment is forcing him out for
siding with them. But the letter itself hinted at a major
disagreement between its author, Metropolitan’s chief financial
officer, and San Diego representatives on the Metropolitan
board. And that disagreement could have been part of what
provoked the CFO to write the letter and thus led to
Hagekhalil’s downfall.
… Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders are trying
to assassinate three initiatives that the people of California
put on the ballot using the powers of direct democracy. They
are attacking two initiatives that are set to be on this
November’s ballot, and one that was long ago approved by voters
and now is being hollowed out. That initiative is Proposition
218 from 1996. It amended the state constitution to put some
limits and controls on property-related fees and charges. For
example, public agencies planning a new or increased
“assessment,” such as higher rates for water service, have to
comply with certain procedures. -Written by columnist Susan Shelley.
Some $253 million helped Angelenos pay back utility bills from
March 2020 through December 2022, city officials announced on
Wednesday, June 12. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember
Heather Hutt, state Environmental Protection Agency Secretary
Yana Garcia, Water Resources Control Board Chair Joaquin
Esquivel, and officials with the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power and L.A. Environment and Sanitation celebrated
the distribution of federal funding at a news conference.
Officials said the aid was automatically applied to about
204,500 DWP customer accounts. The California Water and
Wastewater Arrearage Payment Program was the source of the
funds, administered by the state water board using federal
American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The San Jose City Council yesterday approved increased costs
for drinking water and wastewater services for some local
residents and businesses. The cost of drinking water will
increase $10-$11 per month for customers of the San Jose
Municipal Water System living in North San Jose, Alviso,
Evergreen and Edenvale. Services for wastewater management will
also increase by 9% per month. The changes are expected to go
into effect on July 1. San Jose Municipal Water System provides
drinking water to 12% of residents in the city, according to
the city. It is one of three drinking-water suppliers in San
Jose, along with San Jose Water Company and Great Oaks Water
Company, which are both privately owned. City councilmembers
voted 10-1 in favor of increasing rates for wastewater
management services and 8-2 in support of raising rates on
drinking water.
Today, Senator Durazo amended Senate Bill 1255, which will
provide an avenue for universal water affordability rate
assistance for public water systems with more than 3,300
connections. As water rates continue to rise three times faster
than inflation, a water affordability program is necessary for
low-income families statewide.
Looking out the front windows of their northeast L.A. home,
Kyle Anido and Katie Cordeal say their front yard is barely
recognizable from a year ago when it was a lawn. “It’s crazy to
see how lively the garden is now,” says Anido, a 37-year-old
camera operator. “There is so much bee activity.” … The
couple estimates they paid around $14,900 for the
transformation, including the design, labor, plants, trees and
mulch. After removing 1,150-square-feet of lawn in the front
yard and the parking strip, their $5,750 turf replacement
rebate from the Department of Water and Power brought the
total down to $9,150. Over the past year, the couple also saw
their water bill decrease by 90%. “Our June/July 2022 water
bill was $210.99,” says Cordeal. Their bill for June/July 2023
water was $24.28, including the extra water used to establish
the 1-gallon plants.
More than 30 people attended a protest hearing hosted by the
San Mateo Local Agency Formation Commission on Wednesday to
voice their disapproval of a city of East Palo Alto decision to
take over running the sewage district, saying the change will
increase sewer rates and diminish the personal and prompt
service they currently receive. In November 2023, LAFCo
voted unanimously to move management of the East Palo Alto
Sanitary District, an independent sewer service established in
1939 under the purview of the city as a district, subjecting it
to new rules and regulations. The city says the proposal will
have no effect on sewer services. Community members claim that
if the city takes over, yearly sewer rates may double, rising
from about $600 to over $1,300 per year.
Healdsburg, California, residents can expect their water and
sewer bills to go up by 21 percent beginning in August after a
rate hike was approved this week by the Healdsburg City
Council. According to the city’s Water and Wastewater Cost of
Service and Rate Design Study, this could amount to as much as
$34 per month for some residents in the Northern California
community. … The city said the revenue will help improve and
maintain its water system, including fixing bursting pipes.
Soon, Monterey One Water customers will no longer receive a
bill in the mail every other month. Beginning July 1,
wastewater fees will show up on a parcel’s annual property tax
bill for the year, eliminating the bimonthly bill. M1W
spokesperson Mike McCullough says once the transition is fully
implemented, the agency estimates it will save about $400,000
annually.
Sebastopol residents could pay an average of $43 more per month
for water and sewer services beginning July 1. The proposed
increase, to be discussed by city leaders on Tuesday and be
voted on by the Sebastopol City Council in June, is meant to
cover the cost of much needed maintenance and replacements on
the city’s aging system. The city has dipped into reserves for
the past five years, depleting its “rainy day” account.
According to city documents, the city expects its water fund to
have just $13,000-plus on the books at the end of the 2023-24
fiscal year, while its wastewater fund will be in the hole by
more than $1 million. … To backfill the loss, the city plans
to raise water rates by 50%. It could then follow one of two
recommended plans: raise rates by 16% in year two, then two
percent for the next three years. Or, in the second plan, the
city could raise rates by 11% in the second year, then 9% for
the next three years.
The court-appointed manager of an embattled utility provider in
the Santa Cruz Mountains reported that circumstances aren’t as
dire as they were six months ago, but the system and its
hundreds of customers aren’t out of the woods. “We’re still
standing,” is the simplest way Nicolas Jaber, an attorney with
Serviam by Wright LLP, could put it during a Wednesday town
hall meeting in Boulder Creek for customers of Big Basin Water
Co. Jaber is also a project manager with the Irvine-based law
firm assigned by a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge last
fall to assume operational control of the water system after it
spent years on the brink of collapse. Only a couple of months
later, a judge assigned even more responsibility to Serviam by
Wright by having it take over Big Basin’s wastewater treatment
plant — serving a subset of customers in the Fallen Leaf
neighborhood — after raw waste was spotted spilling onto open
earth at the facility.
As California slowly emerges from
the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, one remnant left behind by
the statewide lockdown offers a sobering reminder of the economic
challenges still ahead for millions of the state’s residents and
the water agencies that serve them – a mountain of water debt.
Water affordability concerns, long an issue in a state where
millions of people struggle to make ends meet, jumped into
overdrive last year as the pandemic wrenched the economy. Jobs
were lost and household finances were upended. Even with federal
stimulus aid and unemployment checks, bills fell by the wayside.
The bill is coming due, literally,
to protect and restore groundwater in California.
Local agencies in the most depleted groundwater basins in
California spent months putting together plans to show how they
will achieve balance in about 20 years.
Low-income Californians can get help with their phone bills, their natural gas bills and their electric bills. But there’s only limited help available when it comes to water bills.
That could change if the recommendations of a new report are implemented into law. Drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board, the report outlines the possible components of a program to assist low-income households facing rising water bills.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
During drought, people conserve water. That’s a good thing for
public water agencies and the state as a whole but the reduction
in use ultimately means less money flowing into the budgets of
those very agencies that need funds to treat water to drinkable
standards, maintain a distribution system, and build a more
drought-proof supply.
“There are two things that can’t happen to a water utility – you
can’t run out of money and you can’t run out of water,” said Tom
Esqueda, public utilities director for the city of Fresno. He was
a panelist at a June 16 discussion in Sacramento about drought
resiliency sponsored by the Public Policy Institute of California
(PPIC).
This printed issue of Western Water examines water
infrastructure – its costs and the quest to augment traditional
brick-and-mortar facilities with sleeker, “green” features.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
financing of water infrastructure, both at the local level and
from the statewide perspective, and some of the factors that
influence how people receive their water, the price they pay for
it and how much they might have to pay in the future.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
changed nature of the California Water Plan, some aspects of the
2009 update (including the recommendation for a water finance
plan) and the reaction by certain stakeholders.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the challenges facing
small water systems, including drought preparedness, limited
operating expenses and the hurdles of complying with costlier
regulations. Much of the article is based on presentations at the
November 2007 Small Systems Conference sponsored by the Water
Education Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
It’s no secret that providing water in a state with the size and
climate of California costs money. The gamut of water-related
infrastructure – from reservoirs like Lake Oroville to the pumps
and pipes that deliver water to homes, businesses and farms –
incurs initial and ongoing expenses. Throw in a new spate of
possible mega-projects, such as those designed to rescue the
ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the dollar amount grows
exponentially to billion-dollar amounts that rival the entire
gross national product of a small country.
