Water Agency Plans 3%-4% Rate Increase

Ventura County’s largest water agency will raise rates by about 3% or 4% in the next fiscal year, officials said Thursday.

At a morning meeting, Calleguas Municipal Water District General Manager Don Kendall told representatives of 21 water retailers to expect the rate increases.

Calleguas supplies water to about 500,000 customers in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo, Oxnard and unincorporated areas.

The retailers, who buy water from Calleguas and sell it to customers, said they have little choice but to accept the rate hikes, which are still subject to approval by the boards of the Calleguas and Metropolitan water districts.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice; we do have to pay the price,” said Elaine Marchessault, district manager for California Water Service Co. “We have no alternative source of supply.”

Calleguas purchases its water supply from the Metropolitan Water District, which imports it from Northern California via the state’s central aqueduct.

Marchessault said the full rate increase would be passed along to her company’s water users in the Westlake area of Thousand Oaks.

But rate increases by water wholesalers are not always passed along to customers, said Don Nelson, director of public works for the city of Thousand Oaks.

Nelson said Thousand Oaks last year simply absorbed a rate increase from Calleguas, making up for the added costs with increased sales. He said, however, it is very unlikely the city would be able to absorb a rate increase without passing it along for two years running.

Nelson said he was pleased with the projected rate increases as outlined by Kendall on Thursday.

“I think that they are a step in the direction that we were all hoping they would go in,” Nelson said.

He said the rate increases will be far lower than the double-digit rate hikes projected earlier because of a change in the way Metropolitan Water District structures its rates. The rates formerly included the costs of adding service to new areas. But Metropolitan now charges developers.

“It’s not appropriate that existing customers pay for the costs of new development,” Nelson said.

Kendall said the rate increases could have been as high as 10% if not for the restructuring of the rates.

Kendall said the additional revenue from the rate increases will pay for capital improvements to the water system, including underground storage to aid water supplies during a draught or an earthquake.

The rate increases will be voted on in March and take effect in July, Kendall said.