Water Rate Hike Plan Questioned

Ojai officials are skeptical about a water company’s attempt to revise its billing rates to encourage water conservation.

The City Council voted unanimously this week to notify the state Public Utilities Commission of several concerns about a rate increase proposal submitted by Southern California Water Co.

The Los Angeles-based company has held a franchise to provide water to the city since 1948. It serves 2,688 customers in and near Ojai.

Council members agreed that the revised plan is an improvement over the company’s original proposal, which did not provide residents with economic incentives to save water. But they questioned whether customers will conserve enough for the company to achieve a 20% reduction in the amount of water it sells, the goal set in justifying the proposed rate increase.

Councilman Robert McKinney, a consultant for Casitas Municipal Water District, said a voluntary 20% cutback over any length of time is optimistic.

The council instructed City Manager Andrew Belknap to ask the Public Utilities Commission if a 20% reduction seems feasible and also to question whether the company needs to spend $346,000 to reduce the manganese level in its well water, which already meets health standards.

The city also will ask whether the company should be allowed to increase its revenues from Ojai by almost 47% over the next three years, as the company proposes.

Susan L. Conway, the company’s rate adjuster, said Thursday that the commission will not allow higher rates unless the increase is needed to meet expected expenses.

Conway said the revenue is needed to cover inflation costs, repair leaky waterlines and carry out a new conservation awareness program. The manganese filters, she said, are needed because customers complain that well water occasionally looks dirty.