Editorial:
It has become an annual ritual. The Sweetwater Authority board is once again considering raising the water rates for Chula Vista, Bonita, and National City customers. Like clockwork the board will hold a public hearing on their proposed water rate increase and every year for the past 7 years the district has raised water rates, except for 2011.
Several years ago the Sweetwater Authority went to a four tier billing system. The idea was to reward those customers who conserved and used the least amount of water with a lower water rate. These are folks who used 10 hector feet of water or less. A hector foot of water is 748 gallons of water. At the opposite end of this billing system where those customers who consumed the most water, they would be charged the most, with a higher per hector foot rate. The idea was to encourage conservation with their water use.
The idea was good, reward those who conserve and minimize the fiscal impact on the low-income and senior citizen. Yet what looks good on paper doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in real life and this plan did not work.
As it turns out, the majority of the folks who use the most water lived in Bonita with their larger than normal properties, who saw their water bills in some cases triple from around $200 every billing cycle (Sweetwater bills every two months) to over $800. These residents were outraged and considered their expense a subsidy of the poor.
Consider that at the low end, those users were at one time paying 35 cents per hector foot.
Naturally the Board listened to the affluent and the Board has been readjusting the rate annually to bring the lower rate up, and this year, once again, the Board is hitting the low-income, those who effectively conserve, the hardest with their proposed rate increase.
From 35 cents, the rates have been raised to their present cost of $1.40 per hector foot and the new rate, if approved, would double that to $2.80 per hector foot. While the poor are getting their rates doubled, those who use the most water will only see their rate raised by 16 cents! So instead of rewarding those who conserve we have a reversal of fortune and those who use the most are being appeased.
And as usual the cause for the rate increase is a pass along rate increase from the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), where the Sweetwater Authority gets some of their water from.
Two things about the water rate increase; 1) the Sweetwater Authority only gets 41%+/- of its water from SDCWA, with most of their water coming from Sweetwater River, wells, and desalination plants, and 2) according to SDCWA their pass along rate this year is among the smallest in the past decade. We have to question why such a spike in the rates from $1.40 to $2.80.
Sweetwater Authority justifies their rate increase citing the pass along rate from SDCWA and the need for infrastructure projects, which are the same projects they have been talking about over the last 6 rate increases, we haven’t noticed any change in the projects or their needs. For example they want to expand the Richard Reynolds Desalination Facility but the question is why? The last we heard their rights to the underground water are tied up in court and have been for several years now. In the meantime SDCWA has decreased their capital spending minimizing the impact on their customer’s rates.
The proposed water rate increase proposal also has one other component to the package they are considering, in that they will forgo seeking public input on future pass along rate increases for the next five years. They are considering to just pass along the rates to the costumers without any public input or consideration.
The Sweetwater Authority board has been caviler in their responsibility when it comes to water rate increases and to give them carte blanche authority in raising the rates will only give them the anonymity and freedom to raise rates without having to face the public outrage.
Lastly there has been very little discussion on ways for the Sweetwater Authority to cut back on expenses, to trim fat on the infrastructure needs, or to review their priorities and possibility of postponing and positioning themselves for such projects as the Richard Rey-nolds Desalination Facility expansion or the Hydrogeological studies.
These questions and many more should be brought up by the community at the Public Hearing, August 25, at 6 pm, in the Board Room of the Sweetwater Authority at 505 Garrett Ave, Chula Vista.