A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 15, 2009
2. Supply –
The
Water supply better than expected, but rates to soar
The
Less water use means EBMUD needs to raise rates
The San Francisco Chronicle
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It is the first time such action has been taken since the early 1990s drought. Statewide water conditions remain below average for the third consecutive year, officials say.
The
By Bettina Boxall
The board of
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has warned for months that the state's drought and environmentally driven cutbacks in water shipments from
"We're short," said Jeffrey Kightlinger, the water district's general manager.
The cuts are the agency's first since the early 1990s drought.
The Metropolitan Water District, which imports water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta and the
In anticipation,
Statewide water conditions have improved in recent months but they remain below average for the third consecutive year.
Total storage in the
Last year, the Metropolitan Water District cut supplies to agricultural customers and it has suspended regional groundwater replenishment. All told, agency officials said they will deliver roughly 20% less water than three years ago.
The reduced deliveries have meant less sales revenue for the agency, which is also facing rising costs.
As a result, the agency will hike its prices by nearly 20% in September -- in addition to the penalty rates. The increase comes on top of a roughly 14% rate increase last year.#
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mwd-water15-2009apr15,0,4326528.story
Water supply better than expected, but rates to soar
The
By Mike Lee
MORE CONSERVATION
Water districts across the county are expected to move from drought response Level 1 to Level 2 because of dwindling supplies. Restrictions will vary by district, but they'll probably include mandates to:
– Limit summertime landscape irrigation to three days per week, based on a schedule set by the district.
– Irrigate with sprinklers for no more than 10 minutes per watering station.
– Repair all leaks within 72 hours of notification by the district.
– Stop using ornamental fountains that don't recycle their water.
But stricter measures to reduce consumption are still almost certain to start by July 1 in
And rates will soar in coming months because the Metropolitan Water District, the main wholesaler for
In one of its most anticipated meetings in years, the Metropolitan board gathered in
But the authority has other sources of water, so it will likely impose a cut of only 8 percent to 10 percent for its customers – retail water districts that serve homeowners, businesses and institutional clients.
“It's going to mean a change in how we use water. There is no end in sight” to the need for water-use reductions, said Ken Weinberg, resources director for the county water authority.
His agency and other districts have promoted voluntary conservation for months because of the state's prolonged drought and pumping restrictions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta designed to help the imperiled smelt recover.
Residents responded with a 5 percent reduction in use last year. Weinberg hopes the 2008 savings will mean that people are capable of making more cuts to meet Metropolitan's newly downsized deliveries.
So far this year, he said, mild weather and a broadening conservation ethic are keeping water use relatively low.
In light of Metropolitan's cutbacks, the San Diego County Water Authority is expected to move from drought response Level 1 to Level 2 at its meeting on April 23.
One of the most common countywide restrictions for Level 2 is restricting outdoor irrigation to three days a week during the summer and to 10 minutes per irrigation station. In nine districts, it also means not providing new water service connections – a measure that officials try hard to avoid because it's a damper on business.
The
With the goal now much lower, Sanders said Tuesday that personal water budgets likely can be avoided in the near term.
“If we can achieve (conservation) through some behavioral restrictions, like watering on certain days or going out to educate people more aggressively, then we can probably meet that without the same water allocation model we have,” he said.
What can't be avoided is higher rates.
The Metropolitan board settled on a 19.7 percent rate increase that will start in September and projected a 21.5 percent increase for 2011. The agency will re-evaluate the pricing strategy in coming months to see if it still makes sense.
“What it represents is the end of the era of cheap water,” said Timothy Brick, chairman of Metropolitan's board.
The wholesaler has tapped its water and money reserves in recent years to put off rationing and protect ratepayers from dramatic rate increases. Tuesday's increase is driven by fixed costs that Metropolitan must pay regardless of how much water it sells. It was developed in conjunction with the current water supply outlook and the agency's most recent sales projections.
Despite that improvement, Brick said Metropolitan's water-supply shortages are still as great as at any time in its 81-year history. The agency distributes drinking water for nearly 19 million people.
Brick challenged water managers to work together to find long-term solutions.
“Metropolitan historically has responded to crises . . . not by folding our tents, not by complaining, but by figuring out ways to stretch our supplies,” he said. “We need to be able to say to
Staff writer Ron Powell contributed to this report. #
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/14/bn14water-use-reduction/?metro
Less water use means EBMUD needs to raise rates
The San Francisco Chronicle – 4/15/09
By Kelly Zito
The
But lower water use has a downside - higher bills.
Because the East Bay Municipal Utility District has urged both voluntary and mandatory conservation during the recent dry spell, the agency is delivering less water, which means lower revenues.
In an attempt to make up for the shortfall, district staffers recommend raising water rates by 7.5 percent annually for the next two years. That's notably higher than annual rate increases in recent years of 3.5 percent to 5 percent. Sewer rates would also go up, by 5 percent in each of the next two years.
The rates, which would go into effect July 1, will be the subject of a June 9 public hearing and a vote by the district's board of directors on June 23.
Water agencies around the region and state are grappling with a similarly complicated mix of circumstances.
Restrictions on water siphoned through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and three years of below-average precipitation have depleted reservoirs, forcing many water managers to institute some form of conservation. But lower water sales don't pay to fix or replace aging pipelines and pumps.
Under the
Elsewhere, the Marin Municipal Water District is considering raising rates by 7 percent, while the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is proposing 10 percent annual increases until 2013.
Officials at the
"Overall, we're selling less water than we anticipated, but we still have the same fixed costs," district board president Doug Linney said Tuesday.
If the board adopts both staff recommendations, customers will see other changes July 1, the same day the district will declare the water shortage over and roll back rationing and drought rates.
The district enacted the drought measures in May, after one of the driest spring seasons in
This year, storms in February and March helped replenish the
Customers provided the other boost.
Although ratepayers fell short of the district's conservation targets - they saved about 13 percent rather than the hoped-for 15 percent - officials said the agency's water supply will reach 450,000 acre-feet by the end of the summer.
A supply below that level normally triggers rationing; voluntary conservation kicks in above that level (One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, roughly the amount of water needed to supply two families for a year).
The
But one attendee at Tuesday's meeting criticized a system that would find a 25 million gallon-a-day increase in water use acceptable.
"People still think of water as a free, abundant resource," Lamont said after the meeting. "That's not the reality of what we have anymore."
Water use down, but rates going up
The East Bay Municipal Utility District customers have reduced water use by 13 percent. By July 1, the agency is set to:
-- Declare the end of water rationing and drought pricing imposed last year.
-- Increase water rates by 7.5 percent a year for the next two years.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/15/BAE5172AI4.DTL
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