The water fee hike recently approved by the Santa Clara Valley
Water District is chutzpah at its finest.
The water fee hike recently approved by the Santa Clara Valley Water District is chutzpah at its finest.
The water district, which is selling poisoned water to well customers in the San Martin area and to the city of Morgan Hill through perchlorate-contaminated wells, stuns us with its unmitigated gall to raise prices for a tainted product just months after unveiling the fact that the water is .
“We are already paying for something your staff advised us not to use,” San Martin residents Kurt and JoAnn Brittain wrote to the water district in April.
We couldn’t agree more.
The water district board approved the hike which will charge municipalities – including Morgan Hill and Gilroy – $20 more per acre-foot to buy groundwater to run their water treatment plants.
Farmers could see water bill increases of hundreds of dollars per year now that the price has risen from $14 to $16 per acre-foot for agricultural water users.
Private well owners, who are charged based on their lot sizes for the right to tap into South County’s groundwater basin, will pay up to $20 more per year to access water that’s possibly poisoned by perchlorate.
We have our doubts that the notoriously bureaucrat-heavy, money-laden water district needs to raise rates at all. But it’s unconscionable to ask Morgan Hill municipal users and San Martin well owners to pay more for poisoned water.
If times are tough at the water district, their first response should be to tighten their belts – reduce waste, get rid of administrative and bureaucratic fat – before asking ratepayers to shell out more money.
If directors can’t see their way to reversing the fee hike – our preference – then they should at least exempt the City of Morgan Hill and South County well owners from the hike.
Finally, it should be noted that no one spoke to oppose the rate hike at the water district directors’ meeting at which the increase was approved. That’s too bad – and we wish some South Valley residents had made the trek to San Jose to speak their minds – but it also clearly points out the problem of holding meetings during business hours.
The water district ought to take a cue from city councils all over the valley and hold its meetings when the largest chunk of the public can attend – and that’s not from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
South County residents and government officials ought to be up in arms over the brazen move by directors to charge them higher prices for a defective product. They should give water district administrators and directors no peace until the fee hike is reversed – at least for perchlorate-affected customers.
Contact either of your water district representatives:
• Morgan Hill’s Rosemary Kamei or Gilroy’s Sig Sanchez at cl*************@va*********.org, leave a message at
(408) 265-2600, mail to Santa Clara Valley Water District, 5750 Almaden Expressway, San Jose, CA 95118-3686 or fax to letters to 266-0271.
