Water Rate Plan May Keep Bills Down

A newly proposed water rate structure should forestall the recent dramatic rise in water bills for Calleguas Municipal Water District customers, local officials said Monday.

The exact savings was not immediately known but Calleguas General Manager Donald Kendall said that, without the new water rate structure, Calleguas customers could expect rate increases this year of greater than 15%.

With the new rate structure proposed by the Metropolitan Water District, water bills would either show no change or might reflect an increase of only a few percentage points, Kendall said.

In addition, the new structure would enable the county to drop the standby charge--a $9.58 levy per acre--that it recently added to local property tax bills, Kendall said.

“For our area, this is a definite benefit,” said Kendall, who planned a briefing today on the new rate structure for managers of the 21 public and private water companies in Ventura County that are served by Calleguas, the county’s largest water wholesaler.

With average family water bills skyrocketing as high as 30% in the past three years, Kendall said, there was pressure on the MWD to come up with a more equitable water rate scale.

In its proposal, MWD said it does not anticipate increased revenues from the new financial structure. Kendall said, however, that the new structure would result in a better bonds rating that would improve the MWD’s ability to fund capital improvements projects.