After three years of paying the same rate, South County well
owners, farmers and cities could see an increase on their Santa
Clara Valley Water District groundwater bills.
After three years of paying the same rate, South County well owners, farmers and cities could see an increase on their Santa Clara Valley Water District groundwater bills.
The district’s staff is proposing a 3.6 percent hike: municipal and industrial water would increase to $285 per acre foot from $275, and agriculture water rates would increase to $17.10 per acre foot. That’s about 34 cents per month per well owner, according to the district.
In the past three fiscal years, the district has kept water-rate increases at bay, but during the next decade, staff is proposing increases every year with 2020 peaking at $365 per acre foot. An acre foot is enough water to provide for a family of five for two years.
“The cost to serve South County is projected to increase slightly primarily due to inflation assumptions,” said Darin Taylor, the district’s senior project manager, by e-mail Thursday. He said South County costs for fiscal year 2012 are projected to be $16.8 million. The revenue produced by water rates is anticipated at $9.3 million, or 55 percent of the total cost to provide clean water to South County’s wells, maintain reservoirs, recharge the groundwater and make improvements on infrastructure. The rest of the balance is funded by an open space credit, along with watershed and general funds.
Water district critic and San Martin well owner Bob Cerruti isn’t convinced.
“Look at how they’ve been able to do well at $275 an acre foot. And now all of the sudden they need to increase?” Cerruti said. “They are overstaffed is what it is.”
The water district provides water supply and flood protection to the county’s 1.8 million people. The agency employs about 750 people and has a budget of about $305 million.
Water district CEO Beau Goldie reduced 82 positions at the district, including the 25 that were eliminated in 2010, amounting to $115 million savings during a 10-year span. The savings, however, is not enough for staff to propose a rate decrease like Cerruti would like to see.
Included in the groundwater fees during the next two years is “debt” from a lawsuit between the Water District and Olin Corp., the company that was found responsible for polluting groundwater with rocket fuel in 2000 in Morgan Hill and San Martin.
In March 2010, the lawsuit was settled leaving ratepayers to pay $4.6 million for the perchlorate cleanup until 2013 when South County’s deficit will reach a zero-balance. The “debt” was incurred by the district to pay staff during the panic, provide bottled water and legal fees.
About 4,000 private well owners reside in South County, and each will have the opportunity to protest the rate increase again this year. In 2010 the water district mailed instructions to well owners outlining how to protest the water rate, but was criticized for “burying” the information on the fourth page of a four-page newsletter. Critics said the letter was easily mistaken for a district advertisement and should have included a simple ballot.
The protest failed when 433 valid protests were counted from South County after the protest period closed in April 2010. The tally was less than the 1,823 protests needed for it to succeed to eliminate groundwater fees for fiscal year 2010.
This year’s protest letters were mailed to well owners Feb. 25 and several public meetings are scheduled before the rates are voted on by the seven-member board of directors in April. The public hearing opens April 12 and closes April 26 – the last day a protest letter can be submitted.
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