Camarillo Hikes Rates to Reduce Water Use : Drought: The plan is meant to limit a family of four to 8,228 gallons a month. The city faces a 30% cut ordered by MWD.

The city of Camarillo has increased water rates to achieve a 30% cutback mandated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

The council approved the rate hikes, which will take effect April 1, at a meeting Wednesday.

City officials said they expect the increases to encourage conservation by hitting consumers in the wallet.

“Excess water costs too much for people to waste,” Mayor David Smith said. “It will become immediately clear to them with one month’s bill if they use too much water.”

The rates are designed to limit single-family households of four residents or fewer to 8,228 gallons of water a month, said Anita Bingham, the city’s finance director. An average household in Camarillo now uses about 11,968 gallons monthly, which costs $20.95, she said. Under the new rates, that will increase to $23.05.

The rates increase steeply as families use more water, especially for those who use more than 21,692 gallons monthly, Bingham said. Their monthly bills will nearly quadruple from about $46.40 to $162.40. Bingham said several hundred major consumers will be affected by the tougher measures.

Camarillo, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Oxnard buy water from the MWD, which decided earlier this month to cut water deliveries by 50% overall effective April 1. And Camarillo is one of a growing number of Ventura County cities--including Ventura, Oxnard, Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks--to ration water in the area’s fifth year of drought.

Camarillo provides water service to more than 8,300 households and nearly 1,000 businesses and farmers. Last year, Camarillo residents used about 3 billion gallons of water, half of which was purchased from the Calleguas Municipal Water District, a wholesale purveyor of MWD water. The other half came from two underground wells operated by the city of Camarillo.

The new measure affects businesses and farmers as well as residential users. Bingham said it will be especially hard on farmers, who will be billed based on their past use. The measure, which will affect 16 farmers in the city, hikes rates after farmers use only 10% of their previous amounts.

“I already have one agricultural customer who said he is not going to be planting,” Bingham said. “It is not profitable.”

Exceptions to the new rates include landscaping required for slope stability or fire prevention, medical needs prescribed by a doctor, and groves of 30 or more mature fruit trees.

Bingham said excessive water users were notified Thursday. By next week, the entire city will be alerted to the changes and how they can get exceptions, she said.