CITYWIDE Santa Monicans will most likely have to pay more for their water in 2009 after the Metropolitan Water District board voted last week to increase the rate it charges customers, partly because of the recent drought in Southern California.
The estimated 14.3 percent increase to the district’s 26 member cities, of which Santa Monica is a part, will depend on the amount of water in which they purchase. Residents could see their water bill rise by $2 beginning in January.
“The new rate really reflects the cost of delivering water in Southern California and investments that must be made to maintain not only the infrastructure, but also the supply itself,” Bob Muir, spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), said on Monday.
The total rate hike includes a 9.8 percent base rate increase and an extra $25 per-acre-foot surcharge that will fund the purchase of additional supplies for the MWD. An acre-foot is estimated to be approximately 326,000 gallons, equivalent to the amount of water used for two households.
“These costs include the need to acquire increasingly costly water transfers and more aggressive water conservation,” MWD board Chairman Timothy F. Brick said about the March 11 vote.
Santa Monica receives approximately 85 percent of its water from the MWD, a result of the loss of groundwater wells after a leak of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) was detected in 1996. Five groundwater production wells were shut down in the Charnock Well Field after MTBE, a chemical usually added to motor gasoline, was discovered leaking from underground storage tanks and pipes owned by several major oil companies.
The rate increase doesn’t come as a surprise for Santa Monica city officials who have anticipated the hike for some time. The MWD increase is being incorporated into an overall water rate study that is being conducted by City Hall and should be available to the City Council next month, according to Gil Borboa, the utilities manager with City Hall.
The results of the study could lead to a citywide rate increase for the roughly 16,000 rate payers in Santa Monica.
Though Borboa said he could not give an estimation for a possible rate increase until the study is completed, he noted that staff made a projection for an 11 percent water rate raise last May.
The drought, caused by record rain shortage in the Southland, has caused municipalities to become clever with water conservation. City Hall last year launched the “20 Gallon Challenge,” encouraging its residents to save 20 gallons of water each day. Orange County officials took a more hard-to-swallow route last year, announcing they were treating sewage for drinking water.
Since the Charnock wells shut down, the MWD has supplied most of the local drinking water with the remainder coming from other local groundwater wells owned by City Hall. The MWD water is blended with local well water and treated through the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant before it is distributed.
City Hall is currently planning to construct a new water treatment facility, which should decrease its dependence on imported drinking water. The council voted last month to spend $4.3 million on a design contract for the new treatment facility at Charnock Well Field, a project that includes upgrading the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant.
The project will be funded through as settlement agreement reached with the liable oil companies. City officials also last week reached a settlement with the attorneys who represented City Hall in the lawsuit with the oil companies, agreeing to pay the attorneys $55 million.
“We are working diligently to recover the well supply and hope to have it available to us in 2010 and then we can reduce our MET intake,” Borboa said.
