Radical Changes in Water Billing
by Dale Tyler

On Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011, the Moulton Niguel Water District (MNWD) Board held a public hearing to consider adopting a completely new method of billing for water in that district, which serves 167,000 customers in parts of Mission Viejo and four other South County cities. There were about 50 ratepayers present. Of the approximately 20 who spoke, only two were in favor of the plan. The rest, including this author, spoke against the proposed plan.

At present, customers are billed on a sliding scale ranging from $1.16 for 748 gallons (1 BU) up to $1.97 per BU, depending on monthly usage. These rates will increase to $1.35/BU up to $2.29/BU on June 1, 2011. In addition, charges are made for sewage, and a basic $18.50 base charge is also assessed. Commercial customers and homeowner associations pay different rates. From 2009 through 2011, rates have been increased 16% each year for a 56% total increase in three years.

The new residential rates are based on the number of people who live in the residence and the size of the outside yard. Rates escalate from $1.38/BU up to $11.02/BU. The highest rate is triggered by going over your allotment by only 50%. Each person living in the residence is allowed to use 65 gallons per day before penalties are assessed. Detached residences are presumed to have four people living there, with condos given three and apartments given two people. An allowance is given for each square foot of outside yard that depends on the weather and time of year. Again, penalties are assessed for usage in excess of this allowance. One's water rate can go up to eight times the base rate if these limits are exceeded.

Essentially, the MNWD is proposing to take us from a simple system that modestly increases water rates for increased usage to a complex system that requires reporting of the number of people in each residence and changes to the number of square feet of outside yard. These changes are purportedly being made to encourage “efficiency” in water use. MNWD also states that these new rates are to be “revenue neutral,” meaning no increase or decrease of total revenue to MNWD. In this new system, they also claim “This new rate structure would reward efficiency and give customers the freedom to use their water budgets as they see fit.”

One clue as to MNWD's agenda is the use of the word “reward.” Until I attended the Feb. 23 meeting, I had thought that a utility like MNWD was there to supply water and charge enough money to cover the costs of supplying that commodity. However, it appears that they are interested in “social engineering” by telling us how much water we should use, based on our personal living arrangements. If you have a new child, send one off to college or have a relative or friend move into your residence, you are obligated to report that to MNWD, unless you want to risk suffering the 8x penalties for “wasteful” consumption. Similarly, if you expand or reduce the planted area in your yard, then you must inform MNWD or risk penalties. This sounds like “Liberal (Berkeley) solutions for conservative (Orange County) problems.” We don't need another nanny quasi-governmental agency telling us how to live.

There are other problems with the new MNWD proposed rates. As was mentioned earlier, they provide an allowance per square foot based on weather and time of year. Unfortunately, most of us use simple timer-based systems to irrigate our yards that know little about local temperature and sun exposure. Because of this, it will be easy to exceed our allowance and thus pay up to eight times our base rate. MNWD will collect these windfalls from those who fail to closely monitor their outside usage. They do claim they will divide their territory into 110 micro climate zones with the intention of accurately calculating the amount of water needed for plants in each of these areas. It remains to be seen if their measurements will do anything to predict water requirements on nearby properties with different sun exposures.

Another issue is that MNWD fails to correct the problem of new housing and other uses that overextend the amount of water MNWD imports from the Metropolitan Water District. MNWD gets a specific amount of water for a fixed price, subject to cost increases, and may buy more water at ever-increasing rates. New construction reduces the amount of water available to existing users. To offset this cost, MNWD should charge a “connection fee” of at least $20,000 per new unit so that MNWD can pay the higher cost of imported water for all of its customers for 30 years.

I do give credit to the seven-member MNWD Board, who, when faced with a very concerted opposition by ratepayers at the Feb. 23 meeting decided to postpone adopting the new rate plan. This is quite different from our Mission Viejo City Council, who simply ignore the voices of the citizens and who only listen to those who pay them bribes (campaign contributions).

The chairman of the MNWD Board seemed convinced that the opposition to this proposal was merely due to ignorance on the part of the public. MNWD is planning to have workshops where they explain the “advantages” of the new plan. I plan to attend and try and find the truth of why they really want to impose this new system.

If you want to express your concerns to MNWD, you may email the General Manager, Robert C. Gumerman at bgumerman@mnwd.com.

A copy of the MNWD proposal can be found here.