HUNTINGTON BEACH : Higher Water Rates Needed, Officials Say

The city needs $83 million in expanded water facilities over the next decade, and customers must pay higher water rates to help finance the cost, officials told the City Council this week.

Council members were also told that the city’s burgeoning population has pushed existing water capacity to the limit. Huntington Beach is expected to increase in population by 35,000 in the next 20 years, and that will intensify the problem, staff officials said.

A proposal for expanding water facilities calls for increasing the average household water bill this year by about $10 per two-month billing period, and by another $12 in 1992. City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga said the matter will probably come before the council for a vote within the next two months.

The proposal also calls for building two new reservoirs that would jointly hold 61 million gallons of water. In addition, the city would drill five new wells, tapping underground sources, and each well would have a treatment facility.

The city’s existing water mains and reservoirs would be refurbished and upgraded under the proposal.

Staff officials said the city has $14 million in cash to help initiate the water improvements and construction, leaving $69 million to be borrowed. The staff said the $69 million would be paid off by a combination of increased water rates and charges placed on new residential construction.

According to the staff’s presentation, Huntington Beach currently has one of the cheaper water rates in Orange County, with the average household water bill being $29..08 every two months. The proposed increase this year would raise that average bill to $38.90. Another rate increase proposed for July, 1992, would raise the average bimonthly water bill to $51.40.

Some council members observed that residents are already complaining that their water bills are considerably higher than the average amount mentioned in the staff report. In response, staff officials said households in Huntington Beach do not really receive a “water bill” but rather a bimonthly “municipal services bill.”

That bimonthly bill now averages $55.44 and is for water, paramedic-ambulance service, trash collection and a utilities tax. Only 52% of the average municipal services bill goes for the cost of water use by a household, staff officials said.

The average municipal services bill would increase to $65.74, if the council approves the proposed water increases later this year.

The city’s water situation was presented to the council at an afternoon study session before its regular meeting Tuesday night.

At the regular meeting, the council deferred until March 18 action on the proposed Pierside Village project. That project, which calls for building restaurants on the ocean side of Pacific Coast Highway, was approved by the Planning Commission last November but is being appealed by Councilwoman Grace Winchell.