Mega Water Users Should Prepare for Sticker Shock

The Moulton Niguel Water District is sending notices out to customers whose current water use might push them into the higher billing tiers of the new water budget based rate plan that goes into effect July 1.

To help explain how the new billing structure will work, Charles Roy, director of customer service at MNWD, has reviewed and approved this example of a bill that exceeds a household's monthly allotment by 100 percent. Roy says it will be an extremely rare occurrence, but for the purposes of demonstrating how the billing system will work, this example will be used.

This water bill will include billing at all five tiers. 

• Tier 1, the Conservation Tier: $1.38 per 748 gallons. 
• Tier 2, the Efficient Tier: $1.54 per 748 gallons. 
• Tier 3, the Inefficient Tier: $2.75 per 748 gallons. The rate is for those who exceed their total water budgets by up to 25 percent.
• Tier 4, the Excessive Tier: $5.51 per 748 gallons. The rate is for those who exceed their total water budgets by up to 50 percent.
• Tier 5, the Wasteful Tier: $11.02 per 748 gallons. The rate is for those who exceed their water budgets by more than 50 percent.

How the Billing System Will Work

For this example, a household with a small yard has been allotted eight units for indoor use (standard for a family of three) and 10 units for outdoor use (based on that month's evaporation rates and rainfall amounts)—for a total allotment of 18 units.  A unit is 748 gallons. Now consider that the household experienced a broken sprinkler head and has gone over its budget by 100 percent—for a total of 36 units used.

• The first eight units will be billed at the lowest tier—Tier 1—at a cost of  $1.38 per unit, for a total cost of $11.04.

• The next 10 units will be billed at Tier 2, at $1.54 per unit, for a total of $15.40.

Tier 2 is billed as an outdoor water budget, and both Tier 1 and Tier 2 are considered efficiency tiers. The difference between them is not designed to be a penalty, according to MNWD's website.

• The next five units will be billed at Tier 3—$2.75 per unit—for a total of $13.75.

• The next five units will be billed at Tier 4—$5.51 per unit—for a total of $27.55.

• The last eight units will be billed at Tier 5—$11.02 per unit—for a total of $88.16.

According to this new billing system, the total bill would be $155.90.

Because the water district does not bill in partial units, the cutoff point for Tier 3 will be 5 units above Tier 2 rather than 4.5 units.  The cutoff point for Tier 4 will be rounded up to 5 units above Tier 3 as well. 

Allowances for Unusual Mistakes

According to the MNWD website, extenuating circumstances that caused a rare occurrence of excessive use can be appealed by filling out a variance form. Here are a few examples of extenuating circumstances that can be appealed with a variance form :

• A broken sprinkler head that the household was unaware of.

• A power outage that caused the irrigation system to revert to its original settings (which may be higher than normal use).

• A broken toilet.

• A broken water pipe in the household.

• Medical needs that require larger water use.

"In the case of the broken sprinkler head, if the family were to call up and say that, yes, they had a broken sprinkler head, but now it's fixed--and this was an unusal circumstance for the household--then we would allow the variance and bill the outdoor use back at Tier 2 which would result in a total bill of $54.16," Roy said.  "We do work with the customer on these issues."

In addition, if a household has a legitimate need for more regular water use—such as additional household members—residents can call the district at 949-831-2500 to provide information and have their budgets adjusted.