Survey Supports Spending on Water Supply : Rates: Water authority claims poll shows residents favor higher rates if the money is used to ensure a dependable supply.

Most San Diego County residents would be willing to spend at least $5 more monthly for water to ensure dependable supplies, according to a survey by the County Water Authority released Thursday.

In a survey that local water officials argue shows that San Diegans are becoming more knowledgeable about water issues, the poll also found that more than three out of every four residents believe that they are conserving water to such an extent that further reductions in use are not feasible.

By the same margin, San Diegans emphasized that they are unwilling to pay higher rates simply because their successful conservation efforts have reduced water agencies’ revenues.

Lester Snow, the water authority’s general manager, argued that the poll demonstrates public support for the agency’s efforts to build new pipelines and other facilities to improve the county’s water delivery system.

The poll showed that 59% of San Diegans would be willing to pay at least $5 more a month for water if the money was used to help assure a reliable water supply through new pipelines, additional water storage facilities and techniques such as reclamation and desalination.

Fifteen percent of those polled indicated a willingness to pay up to $15 more monthly for that purpose, while only 13% were unwilling to pay anything extra.

The poll, which consisted of 419 telephone interviews conducted from Oct. 12-14 by San Diego-based Decision Research, has a sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

In the survey, 53% of the respondents agreed that the current water shortage is serious--nearly double the number who expressed concern about it three years ago. Another 39% of those polled said the shortage is “not too serious,” and 6% said they believe there is no water shortage.

The most common explanation given for the shortage is also the most obvious: inadequate rainfall. Although 45% cited the lack of rain, others pointed to explanations ranging from growth and insufficient conservation efforts to poor leadership and planning by elected officials and water agencies.

The survey comes as the Metropolitan Water District, the Los Angeles-based agency that provides more than 90% of San Diego’s water, is debating a proposed 20% water-rate increase that could increase consumers’ monthly water bills by an average of about $1.65.

Initially, the MWD staff had recommended a 78% increase that would have financed the construction of pipelines, reservoirs and other facilities, but that proposal was scaled back amid strong criticism from the agency’s board and elected officials throughout Southern California.

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who has consistently criticized the MWD’s policies and who last spring resisted a push for mandatory water rationing, feels that the poll reinforces her position, mayoral spokesman Paul Downey said Thursday.

“The public is saying it’s willing to support reasonable, justifiable increases,” Downey said. “We’ve never objected to the funding of legitimate projects. What we’ve objected to is that the MWD has been all over the map with these rate increase requests, and that they haven’t done a very good job justifying any of them.”