[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 3/11/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

March 11, 2008

 

2. Supply

 

RATE HIKE:

MWD board to vote on rate hike; The budget committee unanimously supports a 14.3% increase, but some say 20% jump is needed to cover costs - Los Angeles Times

 

IRRIGATION WATER FOR SALE:

Scotts Valley wants to sell surplus irrigation water - Associated Press

 

 

RATE HIKE:

MWD board to vote on rate hike; The budget committee unanimously supports a 14.3% increase, but some say 20% jump is needed to cover costs

Los Angeles Times – 3/11/08

By Deborah Schoch, staff writer

 

Some Southern California households would pay up to 14% more per month for water in 2009 under a plan unanimously approved Monday by a key regional water panel.

The water rate increase, driven by shortages in supplies, would vary widely depending on how much water cities and local water agencies buy from the MWD, which serves 18 million consumers in six counties.

 

The controversial rate hike goes before the entire Metropolitan Water District board today, with some members saying an even larger increase might be needed.

Although the 14.3% increase unanimously passed the MWD's budget committee Monday, some members voiced concern that the hike does not cover the full cost of bringing water to the region and will force them to take $117 million from shrinking reserves. Rates would have to go up 20% next year to cover expenses, said Brian G. Thomas, the agency's chief financial officer.

Board member Willard H. Murray Jr. said he plans to propose a 20% increase when the full 37-member board meets at noon today at MWD headquarters in Los Angeles.

"We should collect enough to pay for the services we provide," said Murray, who represents the Carson-based West Basin Municipal Water District. He failed in a Monday motion to force a vote on a 20% increase.

The sole member of the public to speak at Monday's meeting told the board that a 14.3% jump is too high for lower-income residents.

"We urge you to delay the decision and do an economic analysis," said Miriam Torres of the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, who said residents do not know about the increase.

MWD is a public agency that imports water and sells it to 26 member cities and water districts across the region that use it to supplement local supplies. Its staff blames the rate increase in part on the need to buy more expensive water because of record dry weather last year, a prolonged drought in the Colorado River Basin and a court decision reducing water deliveries from Northern California.

The increase would be larger in cities such as Santa Monica and San Diego that get most of their water from MWD. It would be smaller in Riverside, much of Orange County and other areas that use mostly local groundwater.

Los Angeles residents could see their water bills rise by a total of $3.31 a month by July 2009 because of the MWD increase and two separate increases proposed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The City Council is reviewing the proposed increases.

The MWD staff plans to ask for more rate hikes over the next three years. Rates are expected to rise by 6% to 14% in 2010, and 5% to 10% in 2011, Thomas said.

In view of the rate hikes, some members and local water managers criticized the proposed use of $500,000 in ratepayer money in the agency's 2008-09 budget for operating the new Diamond Valley Lake Visitor Center in Hemet.

The center was built as a museum by the nonprofit Center for Water Education, whose chairman was former MWD board chair and then-board member Philip J. Pace. MWD took over the museum last year when the center faltered financially.

In a move that raised conflict-of-interest questions about Pace's role, the board voted to spend $4.67 million in public money to pay off the center's debt, The Times reported a year ago.

The facility opened as an MWD visitor center in October. Pace resigned from the board, a MWD spokesman said.

Susan J. Varty, board president of the Olivenhain Municipal Water District in Encinitas, said she is troubled over MWD's funding of the center and other recreational facilities when water rates are rising.

"Met's duty is to supply the water," Varty said. "I'm not sure that ratepayers down here in San Diego County think it's a good use of ratepayers' money to be building recreational facilities at the time of a 14% rate increase." #

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-water11mar11,1,1761760.story

 

 

IRRIGATION WATER FOR SALE:

Scotts Valley wants to sell surplus irrigation water

Associated Press – 3/11/08

 

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. -- A Santa Cruz County town has too much water.

 

The Scotts Valley Water District's recycled water plant can produce up to a million gallons of irrigation water a day and it will be able to produce much more in the future.

 

But district general manager Charles McNiesh says there aren't enough customers for all that water, which isn't suitable for drinking. The agency has about 25 customers who irrigate landscaping with the recycled water.

 

The 106-home Vineyard Homeowners Association is about to come online and McNiesh says discussions are under way to add Pasatiempo Golf Club as a customer.

 

The Scotts Valley Water District gets its water from the Santa Margarita aquifer. The recycling plant began operation in 2002. #

http://www.sacbee.com/114/story/776172.html

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