St. Helena Approves Water Usage Penalty Forgiveness Program

ST. HELENA, CA — The St. Helena City Council at its meeting Tuesday approved a Water Penalty Forgiveness Program for water customers who exceeded their water allocations for the June 2021 billing period.

Because the city is in a critical Phase II water emergency, allocations are necessary to conserve water. Penalties are applied to accounts that exceed the drought allocations, and penalty amounts increase based on how much excess water a customer uses.

According to the city's website: "The initial estimate of water penalties for customer use more than prescribed allocations equates to approximately $2.9 million spread over 900 customers. Given the scale of the calculated penalties and this being the first time penalties have been imposed, the City Council approved a Penalty Forgiveness Program."

During June, more than 60 percent of the city's water customers used less water than their allocation which helps the city avoid a Phase III water emergency, city officials said Friday in a news release.

Because June was the first month in which water penalties were applied, the City Council adopted a Water Penalty Forgiveness Program which suspends 75 percent of the June penalties and 50 percent of July penalties.

The program also provides any customer with a penalty the opportunity to eliminate their June and July penalties if the customer does not exceed their allocation in August, September, October and November of this year.

"The customer must meet this target in all four months for the penalties to be forgiven," City Manager Mark Prestwich said. "Any penalties already paid will be credited back to the customer’s utility account. If a customer does not keep usage below targets during the four designated months, then any suspended amount becomes payable to the city."

Also, in an effort to discover leaks sooner, the city reads meters monthly despite the city’s bi-monthly billing cycle. If a leak is detected, the city will notify customers and has expedited the notice to customers for the July meter reads this week, Prestwich said.

Further, any customer who had a leak that resulted in a penalty can submit an appeal to the City’s Water Advisory Board.

More information about the Penalty Forgiveness Program and penalty structure is posted here.