County Told Water Deal May Raise Rates

A high-stakes water deal to bring Imperial Valley water to San Diego could shower three-quarters of Ventura County with water-rate increases and threaten the quality of water that flows through domestic taps and irrigation systems, local water officials said Tuesday.

Calleguas Municipal Water District officials told county supervisors the project could raise rates about $25 to $50 annually for each household, said Eric Bergh, district resources manager.

The Board of Supervisors became the last of six Ventura County jurisdictions to pass a resolution that asks state lawmakers to craft a water transfer agreement between the city of San Diego and the Metropolitan Water District that protects water rates, reliability and quality.

The deal, to be debated by the state Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee on Thursday, has San Diego looking to buy up to 200,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water from farmers in the Imperial Irrigation District.

But the city is balking at the $125 per acre-foot of water that Metropolitan wants to charge for transporting the water to San Diego through the 242-mile Colorado River Aqueduct.

Calleguas officials say if the deal goes through without San Diego paying the full price of transferring water, other Metropolitan members in Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties would see their wholesaler costs increase by about 10%.

All 16 million residents, businesses and farmers who rely on Metropolitan water across Southern California would effectively be subsidizing growth in San Diego, officials contend.

“This issue boils down to San Diego . . . wanting to have some degree of a free ride, subsidized by everyone else,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said.

Calleguas serves 75% of the county’s population south of the Santa Clara River, including Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo, Oxnard, Oak Park, Port Hueneme, the two Navy bases and surrounding unincorporated areas.

All of the cities have signed the resolution over the past 1 1/2 months, Bergh said.