Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 2, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Officials weighing costs as water rates rise
By LINDA LEE
As
New ordinances are cracking down on water wasters, and tiered rates used by some water agencies are designed to keep overuse in check.
Developers are paying higher fees to build new homes and may be asked to pony up more money to finance retrofitting of older homes' inefficient toilets, shower heads and appliances to free up water for new use.
Cities may be forced to cut programs or services to pay for water projects just to sustain their existing residents, businesses and parkland, officials fear. And more collaboration between cities and water agencies may be required to pay for a slew of projects as future water demand outstrips water supplies.
"The elected officials have to make the tough decisions. That's the bottom line," Lancaster Vice Mayor Ron Smith said.
"What are we going to have to do? We're going to have make cuts someplace else. There's only so much of the pie. We're not like the federal government where we can just print our own money.
"So if you want a million dollars here and you don't have it, that means you have to cut a million dollars there," Smith said.
Whether or not the
"As we lose water for environmental reasons in
Much of the money for new water facilities comes from developers, who pay fees estimated by local Building Industry Association officials at roughly $18,000 to $22,0000 per home - dependent on location, home size, service connection sizes and other factors - for water agency costs.
Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40, which serves west Palmdale and most of Lancaster, began charging new water supply fees in 2005 to pay for costs such as "banking" water underground as a reserve for dry years. The fees have raised $43 million to date, of which more than $15 million of that has been spent on new wells, water banking and recycled water projects. Another $29 million is planned for similar projects.
But a regional water management plan adopted early this year by 11 agencies identified seven projects, estimated to cost more than $200 million, as top priorities for seeking state grant money.
The first application for state aid lost out, and officials are trying to decide how to seek help in another different grant round, which offers less money.
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris puts the burden of cost for new water facilities squarely on the state and
"Obviously the state and the county should be bearing the bulk of this because the county's been getting the money for the water for all these years," Parris said.
"But let's be realistic. The
"How to deal with this, I'm not quite sure yet, but I know that the days of us just sitting quietly and being flogged by the county are coming to an end," Parris said. "The one thing I'm perfectly capable of is calling attention to problems. And I don't think that has occurred sufficiently in the past in the entire
The reasons are political, Parris said.
"People are afraid of stepping on toes. When you have a goal of political advancement, people tend to be careful in how they approach problems. I don't intend to run for anything else … and if that means getting in a couple of fistfights with the county then that's what it means."
Lancaster City Councilman Ken Mann is not impressed with county waterworks officials' efforts so far.
"These guys are sitting on millions of dollars collected - what have they done with it?" Mann asked.
But a nine-year legal battle over water pumping rights in the
"We can't create all kinds of storage without a firm settlement as to who has rights to the water and who doesn't have rights to the water," said Norm Hickling, an aide to county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, whose 5th District includes the
Developer fees associated with new growth and grant money will help pay for long-term solutions, Hickling said.
"Antonovich is still trying to find funding at the state level," he said.
"It would be very unfortunate to have to make the existing residents here have to pay for new growth, and that's never been the philosophy of Los Angeles County Waterworks.
"It's a shared resource that we're all going to have to be responsible for, and I don't know that anybody can anticipate what the costs are going to be in the future, or just arbitrarily say that one party should pay and another one shouldn't," Hickling said.
Palmdale Mayor Pro Tem Stephen Knight said the cost burden is always going to be with the agencies.
"It's just like any government, they're going to have to prioritize the money. … I'm not advocating a tax increase or anything like that, but I'm saying some of these issues have to be prioritized.
"It's always a balancing act," Knight said. "Public safety's always been No. 1. And that's what people expect. If you don't have a safe community, people don't want to live here, business doesn't want to come here, and you don't feel safe letting your family go to the parks or grocery stores.
"So that will always be No. 1, but water is going to be one of our major issues forever."
Knight said developers already bring many amenities to the city, but more might be required of them in future projects.
Palmdale Water District directors are concerned that their customers should not shoulder the burden of increased water costs alone.
"As far as who should bear that, it's sad. It's always us, the little man that bears the cost of these things," said Raul Figueroa, one of the water district board's directors.
"I'm a ratepayer and to continue to build in the city and tax me for it, I've been paying for 20 years and I think new business coming needs to carry it," said Linda Godin, another director.
"I don't think the current ratepayers should have to pay for everything new that's coming in. There has to be a way to share that cost," she said.
Godin said her neighbors say they are doing all they can to save water but keep getting letters from the water district asking them to save more.
"They want to know if the rates are going up, why they are paying for it when a shopping center is going in down the street. Those are all good questions, but they're not thinking that that shopping center was planned some time before we got into this crisis situation," Godin said.
"We have a tremendous list of projects that need to be done, a lot of them are to correct wrongs that have been done in the past, like overdraft (pumping more groundwater than is replenished), that needs to be paid for by everybody here," water district board President Dick Wells said.
"Somebody's coming in brand new, they need to pay their fair share and realize how much water does cost. It should not come from the people; the newcomers need to pay their share."
One share of the cost that developers can pick up involves irrigation pipes for the future use of recycled sewage water, Wells said.
Known as purple pipe, for the color that distinguishes them from pipes carrying drinking water, they can be installed now for recycled water that is expected to be available for use by 2011, he said.
"I think it's very important we don't let another project, be it industrial, commercial, residential, I don't think we should let anything come in that doesn't have purple pipe in it," Wells said.
Farmers should also be encouraged to use untreated water from the California Aqueduct when it's available, as well as tertiary treated water from the sewage treatment plants - which is considered safe for human contact - to irrigate their fields, he said.
"I think we should use every drop wisely instead of just dumping it out and having a nuisance as we have presently."
Wells said there is less resistance to installing purple pipe than there had been in past years.
"It's not just one person saying we have a problem," Wells said. "I think it's a whole choir of people saying we have a problem … when the whole choir is singing, they listen."
Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said residents already are bearing a huge cost for tertiary treatment of sewage water from the Palmdale treatment plant.
"This is something that I am convinced is the most environmentally sound approach to take for today and our future in the
"Tertiary treated water becomes the nonpotable water, the by-product of a system that costs each and every homeowner a significant increase in the treatment, but can produce a resource that will prove beneficial forever here in the Antelope Valley.
"The burden is going to continue," Ledford said. "We're all going to be paying about $300 a year for a fee that one time was only $70 for just secondary treated water."
David Rizzo, a director of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, agrees that new development has to pay its share.
"They're the new kids on the block. We're going to have to bring pipelines to them, they should carry part of the burden," he said.
"As far as finding more water, it's probably everybody. Everybody's going to have to pay," including current users, Rizzo said.
Tom DiPrima, north division president for KB Home, said 90% of the infrastructure in the
"We all didn't know 15 years ago that we would be in the situation we are where the smelt and some of the rulings have reduced some of our water availability," DiPrima said.
"So I think that it's something that's not caused by the new construction, it's caused by some environmental issues and we all have to work together as team to try to solve this."
"To the extent facilities are being built to stabilize our water supply here in the Valley, the banking facilities, there's a shared responsibility there between the existing people and the developers because these are facilities that should have been built a long time ago," AVEK General Manager Russ Fuller said.
"They're needed even more because of the new growth that's taken place and that's kind of the philosophy we've taken on it. Some costs are included in the water rates and some of the costs are included in the developer fees.
"As far as new supply to augment what we have in the Valley, we do not have a component in our capital facilities charge or in our water rates that would finance securing more water for the Valley," Fuller said.
However, AVEK raised its developer fees a year ago to help build water banking facilities.
"We raised them because we finally feel we have community support on actually building some of these banking facilities. So we have moved forward on banking facilities that will take care of our future water needs. It should give us a more stable water supply for the future," Fuller said.
"But a kind of bigger question that the people here in the Valley need to decide … do they want to see a lot more growth. A lot do; a lot don't. Somehow we need to resolve that question and are people going to be happy in a home that's xeriscaped rather than one with a nice green lawn and the way things are set up right now.
"All those are social questions that planning,
Gretchen Gutierrez, executive director of the Antelope Valley Building Industry, said the cost of new water facilities should not be placed on the back of one particular market segment or one particular group be it consumers, developers or farmers.
"There should be an equitable fair share - those that acquire it and will be using it, or those that are currently using it, everyone needs to pay their fair share," Gutierrez said.
"An analogy is when we all go to the gas station, we're all paying our fair share at the gas station.
"You don't get a break if you're driving a small sized car versus the person that's driving a big pickup. Everybody pays the same price at the pump."
Wayne Argo, who represents rural town councils on the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan leadership committee, said funding for various projects is identified in the regional plan, partially through grant money.
"It's also going to have to be borne by people who live here and are moving in here. If you don't pay for the service of helping bring water in, then chances are you're not going to be able to build out here," Argo said.
Although state and federal grant money is available to fund possible water projects, Palmdale City Councilman Mike Dispenza predicts water rates will go up as supplies become more expensive to acquire, along with storage, pipes and groundwater recharge programs.
"It will take time and money to get the infrastructure required to collect and store water," Dispenza said.
"Taxpayers and ratepayers will bear the costs. We must pay for what will happen in our area," he said "How much are residents willing to put toward this? Or more importantly, when do the benefits outweigh the costs?
"Residents will hopefully realize we can't do anything without water," Dispenza said.
Palmdale City Manager Steve Williams said the cost burden should be determined by who uses the water.
"If it's for new growth only, then new growth should pay for it. If it's for amenities that serve the existing population, then we should all pay for it.
"If it has to do with long-term reliability, I think we all need to share in it as well. Water quality standards continue to increase and so we all have to bear the burden of improving the water quality of those standards," Williams said.
"Now when new water becomes available, for example, from waste water, that's something that benefits everybody.
"Even though it's replacing water that is coming from other sources, it's just a good thing to do to reuse a natural resource that way and I think we all need to share in some degree of that cost," Williams said.
John Ukkestad, who heads a group of mutual water companies, said water rates will be raised to help pay for a water master after the court battle over water rights is resolved. "We have no problem sharing costs such as water master … as long as it's fair and equitable."
An independent water master could be tasked with carrying out any settlement agreement that is reached over water pumping rights.
In recent years, local water districts have started changing their water prices, with more adopting "tiered" rate charges under which the price of water increases as customers use more.
The Palmdale Water District, for example, adopted a five-tier water rate in 2000 and has modified it since then. Officials are now considering a new tiered rate structure that would establish a water budget for ratepayers, charging them more for using water above the allotted amount, said Curtis Paxton, assistant general manager for the district.
"The water budget would change throughout the year, based on the weather. Obviously during the summer, the customer would be allotted more water. It would make it a little more equitable for people based on the number of people in the house and the landscaped area," Paxton said.
The money generated from excessive use would be used to pay for conservation programs, much like Los Angeles County Waterworks Districts, he said.#
http://www.avpress.com/n/31/0831_s3.hts
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