By Justin HAGER

Several dozen people gathered via telephone and Zoom on Tuesday night for a presentation and public hearing on proposed rate increases by the Crescenta Valley Water District. Following the theme “A Reliable Tomorrow Starts Today,” the meeting began with a presentation by manager Nem Ochoa on the need to upgrade or replace the aging 1950s and 1960s infrastructure, rein in costs and continue to provide safe and reliable water and wastewater services. The presentation highlighted the 2020 strategic plan that focused on long-term infrastructure and financial planning including developing a capital improvement plan to ensure reliability, a funding plan with finance and refinancing options to save $63,000 annually, and cost saving initiatives such as eliminating seven full-time positions to save more than $900,000 annually.

According to Ochoa, households currently pay slightly less than 1 cent per gallon of water. Under the proposed increases, the average household would pay 1 cent per gallon in the first year of the increase and about 1.2 cents per gallon by the third year of the rate increase. He also shared information and a link to a rate calculator where ratepayers could use information from their current water bill to determine how much their bill would be under the new increased rate system. The rate calculations shown during the presentation used the data of the average ratepayer in CVWD and showed that, under the proposed rate hike, users would see their water bill go up by about 26% over three years from around $238 dollars per year to about $300. The rate calculator can be found at cvwd.com/water-rate-calculator.

Public comment regarding the rate increases was surprisingly helpful with water district directors and staff taking time to answer every question put forward and providing an on-screen timer to help speakers know how much of their allotted three-minute speaking time remained. In total about a dozen people spoke with an additional 23 sending letters to the CVWD. Speakers in the meeting asked a variety of questions, but many of them echoed concerns about their wastewater rates increasing multiple times in the past several years.

Frank Colcord, a director at the Foothill Municipal Water District, spoke in favor of the rate increases, stating that as a ratepayer himself he believed the plan being moved forward by CVWD was both cost-conscious and effective at ensuring reliable water moving forward.

Several speakers asked how CVWD’s rates would compare to similar water districts in Southern California. Staff provided several graphics that showed both the current and proposed rates; these would put CVWD in the middle of the pack when compared to peer water agencies. However, further analysis showed that, while CVWD is in the middle of the distribution, the distribution is heavily skewed to the high end. This means that despite being in the middle of the pack, CVWD’s proposed rate is less than 10% lower than the second and third most expensive peers, but is 35% and 25% more expensive that the second and third least expensive peers, respectively.

Kevin Kostiuk of Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc., which is consulting on the plan, said that comparing rates across districts is difficult because some have significantly greater or less access to ground water.

The CVWD will vote on the proposed rate increase at its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m.