Water Rates Expected to Rise in Coming Year

As the saying goes, two things in life are certain—death and taxes. Add one more to the list in this world of shrinking resources: water rate increases.

Cupertino residents can expect a $1.69 per month increase on average per household water bill starting later this year, after next week’s expected approval of a rate increase by the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) Board of Directors.

The board will vote Tuesday, at 10 a.m., on whether to raise groundwater production rate charges by 9.4 percent in North Santa Clara County, and 3.6 percent in South County.

Groundwater production charges are the fees levied by the water district on well owners to cover the cost of maintaining local reservoirs, replenishing recharge ponds, purchasing imported water and maintaining the pumping and treatment infrastructure.

The cost of those increased charges are passed on to the water retailers, such as the two that serve Cupertino residents, San Jose Water Company and California Water Service Company. The increase in turn is passed on to residents.

According to water district officials, it takes a lot of bucks to provide water to 1.7 million residents in the northern section of the county, with the usage of imported water and three water treatment plants to make water coming out of the ground clean and safe.

"When you calculate the cost of that system in the North County, there is a higher cost to service per acre-foot of water," said Darin Taylor, a SCVWD senior project manager.

It’s a different story in South County, sitting on a separate water basin, where approximately 100,000 residents will see only an average increase of 34¢ per month.

Taylor said the south needs much less imported water and relies on a series of groundwater basins to filter the water in much simpler, natural way. The system is much less expensive compared with the system used in the north.

, where Councilwoman Val Carpenter called the proposed rate increase “unacceptable.”

Carpenter said that while Tuesday’s vote is for the 2011-12 year only, water district officials propose continued rate hikes by just over 9 percent for the north and 3 percent for the south, for a total of five years.

“North County users already pay nearly twice as much per acre-foot as South County users, and in five years, we’ll pay 2½ times as much,” Carpenter told the Los Altos City Council.

“I am confident we all want reliable, clean water … but I am troubled by the projected rate increases of 57.7 percent over the next five years,” in the North County, Carpenter said.

In addition to the differences in where the two areas get their water, Carpenter said another reason given by water district staff is that the North County increase is “driven by the need to offset revenue shortfalls due to reduced water usage beyond what was anticipated.”

In a letter of protest from Carpenter to the Santa Clara Valley Water Commission, an advisory board to the SCVWD board, she wrote, “In other words, North County users who reduced their water usage are being punished for doing so with a rate increase. This makes no sense; reductions in water usage should be rewarded, not punished.”

There is a way to protest the groundwater production charge increases, but only protests from more than 50 percent of well owners in the district can stop Tuesday’s expected vote in favor of the increases. A formal protest procedure is outlined on the SCVWD website.