While the cost of water is rising rapidly and everyone has been told to conserve more, the Seal Beach City Council will be considering a proposal at its April 12 meeting to reduce water bills for everyone, except those who conserve the most.
Residents who use more than 137 gallons a day could see their water bills decrease by as much as 22 percent.
At the same time, those who have been the most water-wise will be “rewarded” with increases of up to 7 percent.
What is going on here?
To begin with, the city has been overcharging for water for some time now. Therefore, despite a 35 percent increase in the city’s cost of water over the last three years, water revenues this fiscal year will likely exceed expenses by $1.7 million. The city’s water rate consultant, Willdan Financial Services, has concluded that a surplus of this magnitude violates Prop 218. This mandates that water revenues “not exceed the funds required to provide services.”
To bring water revenue and expenses into balance, Willdan has recommended that revenues be reduced by 18 percent starting this July.
Let’s have a round of applause for Prop 218! In today’s economy, homeowners can use a break, even it is just a few bucks a month.
Not to be left out, Seal Beach businesses will greatly benefit from a proposed 32-37 percent drop in their bills. Bills in Leisure World would be reduced by 24 percent.
So why will the water misers have to pay more? This would occur because Willdan has recommended that our current four-tier residential rate schedule be replaced with a two-tier schedule which does not promote conservation as aggressively. For example, water misers currently pay only $1.40 per “Unit,” which is half what large volume users pay. Under the proposed rates, misers would have to pay a minimum of $1.93 per Unit.
A representative from Willdan informed me that they recommended a two-tier system for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, their proposal mirrors the two-tiered system that the Metropolitan Water District uses to charge the city for imported water. Willdan’s 1st tier reflects MWD’s base water rates. The 2nd tier reflects the penalty costs charged by the MWD when the city uses water in excess of our annual allotment.
The second reason for Willdan’s two-tier proposal was that the city did not provide Willdan with data of sufficient detail to construct a four-tier system. The city only provided average water use per home, not water use by each of our current four tiers.
If this data were made available, Willdan could develop a revised four-tier rate structure that could possibly cut everyone’s rates, but still provide the same strong incentive for conservation that we currently have in Seal Beach.
As Californians, we all have to be cognizant that we live in a desert and must treat water as a scarce and critical resource. As such, it behooves us as a city to maintain the current incentives that we have to encourage conservation. I hope that the City Council shares this perspective, and asks Willdan to give us rates that will not only save money, but also save water.
Robert L. Goldberg of Seal Beach says he’s a water miser and bought a couple of rain barrels at Brita’s Gardens last winter.
