The Santa Clara Valley Water District wants residents and
businesses to cut consumption by 15 percent as soon as possible,
which could mean stricter watering regulations and possibly higher
water rates for Gilroy residents. It’s all up to the city
council.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District wants residents and businesses to cut consumption by 15 percent as soon as possible, which could mean stricter watering regulations and possibly higher water rates for Gilroy residents. It’s all up to the city council.
Despite the district board of director’s recent 7-0 vote to impose mandatory rationing, the water wholesaler’s only stick seems to be its ability to raise rates for the valley’s 13 retailers, which actually bill the 1.8 million customers from Los Altos to Gilroy. Instead of raising rates for the second time this fiscal year, though, Spokesperson Susan Siravo said the district expected distributors like Gilroy to come up with their own ideas.
“The district only has the authority to recommend,” Siravo said. “It’s up to the water retailers to decide what to do.”
The average Gilroy household pays about $32 a month for water and at least another $30 for sewer services, according to city consumption and price data. Raising rates to deter consumption would have to go through the city council and could go into effect by May at the very earliest. However, the city council has historically only passed hikes after the district raises its rates.
Passing those costs along to consumers has maintained the city’s water department, and by the same token, while rationing means reduced sales and less revenue for Gilroy, it also means lower payments to the water district for fewer gallons – that is, of course, if people conserve, and Councilman Perry Woodward thinks they will.
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here talking about rate hikes,” Woodward said. “I’ve got to believe people are using less water this year with the recession and the unconscionable rate increases the district has already inflicted on us.”
Compounding the statewide drought, the water district has had to reduce the amount of water imported from the Sierra snowpack by two-thirds, causing the district to rely more heavily on its reserves, according to a staff report. Despite significant rainfall in February and earlier this month, environmental restrictions limit pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect the delta smelt, a fish that is native to the region. About half of the county’s drinking water comes from the Delta, and the water district’s local reservoirs are at roughly 65 percent of capacity. Many of the state reservoirs are at or below 50 percent.
The Morgan Hill City Council is considering a 20 percent savings by increasing rates for its thirstiest customers. Gilroy also has a tiered structure. All told, Gilroy’s 11,000 water customers use about 3 billion gallons a year and will likely pay $8.1 million in bills this year. That money will pay for city water personnel, materials and infrastructure improvements, utility costs and a district bill expected to exceed $3 million, according to city figures.
This money comes from customers scattered throughout the tiered system. Residents who use less than 5,000 a month pay about $8.50, or $0.88 per 1,000 gallons plus a base fee. Rates for households that use more than 5,000 gallons and 15,000 gallons are double and triple that rate, respectively. Commercial and industrial rates begin at the same level as residential rates but increase less rapidly for greater consumption, and farmers pay at least $4.65 per 1,000 gallons to irrigate right off the bat. In general, heavier users also have higher base fees, and people living on hillsides pay more for the extra electricity it takes to pump their water.
City Administrator Tom Haglund said the council would receive an update April 6 and could pass an ordinance, if any, by May, which would go into effect 30 days later. One idea council members may hear from Haglund next month is hiring a part-time enforcement officer to make sure residents are not watering yards during the scorching summer afternoons ahead or leaving hoses and sprinkler systems unattended – whatever the potential ordinance may call for.
Resident Don Mazzone is still appalled that he has to pay the nearly $8 monthly minimum for the water he barely uses at his house on Eighth Street plus an additional $31 for the sewer system he said he hardly contributes to.
“That’s the cheapest I can get it for, and I’m not even using it,” Mazzone said outside his girlfriend’s house on the 7500 block of Filice Drive, where the incessant sssshhhh-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic of a sprinkler nearby caused him visible grief.
“Look at this guy,” Mazzone said as he shook his head.
“That thing’s on all the time, but this grass here,” he said with a nod to his girlfriend’s green lawn, “This here hasn’t been watered since before the rains started.”
Up in Eagle Ridge, Sandy and Paul Dal Santo spent their Wednesday afternoon planting new bushes along their narrow front yard. The couple from Chicago agreed with the tiered structure and recommended that the city watch commercial and industrial users more, but they said they felt Californians were generally conscious of conservation issues and that rates here did not seem high compared to Illinois.
“I feel like people are generally conscious out here,” Paul Dal Santo said.
The city could potentially stop water wasters by hiring a part-time enforcer through the city’s water fund, but that account is running a $1.6 million deficit this year. The difference will come from a water account reserve fund, which already shelled out $1 million last year to help pay for Gilroy Gardens before beginning this fiscal year with more than $11 million interest-earning dollars, according to Finance Director Christina Turner.
About three-quarters of that reserve, however, may be spent to repurchase bonds the city issued to build the Sunrise Fire Station, the new police station, the sports complex and improvements at the corporation yard, but Haglund said the city would likely refinance the bonds – rather than purchase them outright – once credit loosens.
Haglund has worked throughout the central valley where he said year-round conservation practices are the norm. During the next few weeks, he said he would look at Gilroy’s past water-conservation history to help him come up with a recommendation.
Last year, the district called for a voluntary 10-percent rationing, but residents throughout Silicon Valley only saved 7.5 percent, Siravo said. But during the 5-year drought beginning in the late 1980s – when state rainfall fell by 50 percent – the district called for and achieved a 25-percent mandatory cut.
Visit www.ValleyWater.org for conservation tips.
