PADRE DAM CUSTOMERS COULD BE FACING EVEN HIGHER BILLS

By Mike Allen

July 10, 2023 (Santee) -- Already paying some of the highest water bills in the nation, customers of Padre Dam Municipal Water District as well as 22 other agencies could see their rates increase even more if two North County water districts secede from the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA).

Both the Fallbrook Public Utilities District and the Rainbow Municipal Water District have been trying to leave the CWA because they say the costs for the purchased water is too high, and they can get it cheaper by joining the Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside County.

An independent government agency, the Local Agency Formation Commission of San Diego County, better known as LAFCO, will determine the outcome of this issue, and scheduled to take a vote today.

The CWA is opposing the exit of the two agricultural-heavy districts, saying in written letters that should the proposed detachment goes ahead it would cause the remaining 22 agencies and its customers to pay higher bills. The customers would have to assume the agencies’ share of all the long-term investments CWA has made over the past several decades such as the Carlsbad desalination plant, reservoir upgrades, and multi-year agreements with the Imperial Irrigation District to supply water for the region.

LAFCO’s staff is proposing that the two districts pay the CWA an exit fee of $4.8 million annually over five years, or $24 million, which CWA says doesn’t come close to making the regional agency whole.

In a release this week, CWA said the LAFCO exit fee is based on flawed data and projections that understate the actual losses the agency would sustain by at least 50 percent.

LAFCO’s estimates do not reflect inflationary realities or the fact that the financial impacts stemming from the detachment will continue far beyond the five-year horizon, the actual lifespan of the infrastructure as well as the debt obligations to pay for it, according to a press statement (sdcwa.org).

To give LAFCO some help in making its decision, CWA conducted its analysis of the potential costs it will bear, which it says is nearly $200 million over 10 years.

For Padre Dam customers, those increases translate to nearly $500,000, or $497,792 annually. That’s on top of already paying some of the highest water bills in the state or nation that were increased earlier this month from pass-through charges by the CWA, the San Diego Metropolitan Wastewater division, and San Diego Gas & Electric.

All three agencies inflicted increases for their services last year. While Padre Dam froze its water rates over five years to fiscal year 2027, and used funds from a legal settlement to stave off the pass-through rate hikes over the first year, its customers are now seeing the effects on their most recent bills.

Padre Dam gave an update on its water and sewer rates with the pass-through costs that were added last year, and appearing on bills after July 1.

For an average water user, based on the use of 9 hundred cubic feet monthly, that will push their bill from $111 to $114.60, and for sewer, using an average of 7 hundred cubic feet, it will go from $67.23 to $70.24, according to figures provided by the district.

Combined, that will mean the new monthly bill for an average Padre Dam customer is $184.84, compared to prior average bill of $178.23.

Padre Dam, along with San Diego County, the city of El Cajon and Helix Water District, are in the midst of constructing an Advanced Water Treatment program that would convert some 15 million gallons of sewage to about 11 million gallons of potable water daily. That would eliminate having to spend money on the transfer of that sewage to the Point Loma treatment plant and reduce the amount of water purchased from CWA.

While that would be a cost savings that could reduce bills, the CWA is not refraining from an ongoing trend in hiking its rates. Last month, the board voted to raise the water rate it charges its member agencies by 9.5 percent. That hike takes effect Jan. 1, 2024, and will be passed on to all the water districts, and in turn, the local rate payers.