SD Water Authority Proposes Rate Increases

• News release from the San Diego County Water Authority:

SAN DIEGO, CA: The San Diego County Water Authority staff has proposed increasing rates charged to member agencies by 6.4 percent for untreated water and 5.9 percent for treated water in calendar year 2017, similar to the increases adopted by the Board of Directors for 2016.

Next year’s rate proposal is primarily driven by higher costs from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. In addition, it incorporates higher costs for drought-proof water supplies from the Claude "Bud" Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant.

The rates are also impacted by state-mandated reductions in water use that are expected to lower the Water Authority’s sales compared to previous projections.

Careful financial management by the Water Authority has kept the proposed rates near the low end of its projections and well below the double-digit increases during the last drought that were driven by steep price hikes from MWD. One way the Water Authority avoids such steep increases is through its planned draw of approximately $20 million from the agency’s Rate Stabilization Fund — created in 1990 — in accordance with the agency’s long-term financial planning to provide the necessary funds to maintain a smooth water rate pattern over time and to prevent rate shock for its customers.

Proposed 2017 rates will be formally presented to the Water Authority Board on May 26. The Board will hold a public hearing on the 2017 rates and consider their adoption on June 23.

"The desalination plant has provided our region with a drought-resilient water supply that lowered state water-use targets across the region and is expected to help alleviate the need for extraordinary conservation measures," said Maureen Stapleton, general manager of the Water Authority. "Improving supply reliability comes at a cost, but it reduces our vulnerability to prolonged dry periods and shortages that can harm our economy and quality of life."

Read more at: Sdcwa.org.

(Patch file photo/Maggie Avants)