CVWD – Roadmap

Crescenta Valley Water District (CVWD) takes great pride in delivering high quality, reliable and cost-efficient water and wastewater services to our 33,000 customers. As we uphold our mission statement “To provide quality water and wastewater services to the Crescenta Valley community in a dependable and economically responsible manner,” it is important that we recognize our key challenges and develop solutions now to secure our mission and reach our vision for the future of our District.

CVWD, as well as many other water providers throughout California, continue to face increasing operational and financial challenges to maintain and update infrastructure. Contributing to these challenges are escalating energy costs, expanding regulatory costs, rising imported water costs, increasing costs of construction and the growing costs of deferred facility maintenance. It’s imperative to recognize the District’s key challenges and develop and implement a proactive and aggressive action plan to immediately address these challenges.

The CVWD board of directors and the community have discussed the Long-Term Infrastructure and Funding Roadmap since early 2020. Through the Roadmap process, participants became acutely aware of a significant issue the District is facing and the estimated cost to address it. With much of our infrastructure built in the 1950s, a considerable portion of it is approaching or has exceeded its life expectancy. The CVWD board is committed to a long-term plan to address the problem of deferred work on pipelines, wells, reservoirs and other infrastructure to continue providing safe and reliable service to our customers.

Pipelines are the backbone of our infrastructure as they convey water to customers, and pipelines represent the most significant replacement costs. Based on this, the District is implementing a replacement program over the next 20 years that will replace the oldest pipelines as they exceed their life expectancy. This plan needs funding, and the board has elected to present a three-year rate schedule to support a commitment to long-term planning and infrastructure reliability.

The District will soon be mailing a Prop 218 notice to customers. Under Proposition 218 the District is required to hold a protest hearing for the creation or increase of any rates and fees (“property-related fees”). As part of those regulations, the District is required to provide written notice by mail of the proposed fees or charges. The notice will outline the proposed rates and let customers know how to file a protest and when they can attend the public hearing. The public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021 at 6 p.m. This will be a virtual meeting.

In the next couple of weeks, you will find detailed information on the CVWD website as well as an online bill calculator so that you can estimate how the proposed rates might impact your bi-monthly bill.

CVWD board meetings are typically held on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. Board meetings are easier than ever to participate in as they are being held virtually via Zoom.

Throughout this Roadmap process, the District has worked with Raftelis Financial Consultants to complete the Water and Wastewater Cost of Service Study. The study determines equitable water and wastewater rates for all of CVWD’s customers based on compliance with industry-accepted cost of service principles and state law requirements. The methodology, results and rationale are detailed in the study, and the draft report was reviewed through a series of committee and board meetings. A copy of this draft report is available at www.cvwd.com.

The District welcomes and encourages public feedback. In addition to making public comments at board and committee meetings, customers may email comments to ccolby@cvwd.com or drop off written comments at the main office.