![]() ![]() It’s a similar story for San Diegans who paid about $77 a month in 2017 and will pay about $90 a month next year. The average monthly water bill for someone living in the Olivenhain water district in 2017 was about $70, according to a recent survey of water bills by the Otay Water District. “It is very hard to convey that message to my customers of the true wholesale water rate pressures that my agency is having to manage.” “The impact to my agency is actually double,” Thorner wrote in an email. For instance, a 3.6 percent bump in cost from the Water Authority next year triggered a 7 percent bump for Olivenhain Municipal Water District customers (which serves an area from Carlsbad to the 15, Fairbanks Ranch and Cardiff). When Water Authority raises prices, the costs to its customers shake out differently based on their own calculations. The Water Authority stressed these ranges are just guidance and the actual rates are set each year under a different budget process.īut the forecasted increases gave some Water Authority’s customers sticker shock. But the biggest forecasted rate hikes come down pretty soon, from 2023 to 2025, where there’s typically more certainty around financial planning anyway. It’s supposed to give its customers time to plan for high- or low-rate scenarios, where rates could rise between 3.5 percent and 6 percent per year on average over the next decade. The Water Authority’s predicted rate hikes are part of the long-range financial planning process it completes every five years, which is coming before the agency’s board on Sept. The City Council is considering a 3 percent increase on Tuesday, its first water rate-hike in two years. The city of San Diego is proposing to pass that cost onto ratepayers. When the agency does that, the 24 cities and water districts that buy water from it can either absorb those costs or hike water prices for their customers - households and businesses. This summer, the Water Authority raised prices for treated water (the kind we drink) 3.6 percent and 3.3 percent for untreated water (which comes from a river or reservoir and is not yet fit for human consumption), beginning in 2022. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. “It is … incredibly important to the city that every rate driver be thoroughly analyzed to ensure rates are not escalating to a more unaffordable point on behalf of San Diegans,” Jay Goldstone, San Diego’s chief operating officer, wrote to Water Authority General Manager Sandy Kerl in a Sept. The city of San Diego, the San Diego County Water Authority’s biggest customer, which already pays some of the highest water rates in the country, is challenging the way the agency manages its billions in debt and pays for the stuff it builds - even calling for third-party audits of its financial plans. The agency pointed to multiple drivers, chief among them an expected drop in demand as more cities build water recycling projects and the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water Authority, which controls San Diego’s access to the Colorado River, continues raising its rates.īut that’s only part of the story. The San Diego County Water Authority, which controls most of the region’s water resources from the drought-stressed Colorado River, is predicting anywhere from a 5.5 to 10 percent increase in the cost of water beginning in 2023, with hefty hikes continuing in the years thereafter. San Diego County residents should expect to pay a lot more for water in the near future. Brews & News: Voice of San Diego Live Podcasts.Higher Water Costs on the Horizon for San Diego Region | Voice of San Diego Close ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |