DWP Plans Another Hike in Water Rate

A year after a bruising battle over water bills ended with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power raising rates 11%, a new increase is in the works.

On Friday, the agency released a budget that calls for a 4.7% boost in water revenue.

DWP General Manager Ron Deaton said construction projects required by regulatory agencies are behind the need to increase revenue in January 2006, as well as 15% over the following four years.

“We are facing an increasing cost for water quality and we have a lot of expenditures,” said Deaton, who cited projects, including those involving city reservoirs.

He said the increase in rates for commercial, industrial and residential customers has not yet been worked out, but predicted the water rate will go up about 4.5% for the average homeowner in January 2006.

The increase would generate an extra $25 million annually for water projects, he said.

Councilman Tony Cardenas, who heads a council committee overseeing the DWP, said he needs to be convinced another rate increase is necessary.

“We’re going to have a third-party analysis to see whether it is warranted,” he said.

He also said any rate increase would have to be submitted to the city’s neighborhood councils for input before the City Council would consider approval.

The water and power budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is scheduled to be considered Monday by the DWP board at a special meeting. The budget notes that Los Angeles water rates are still below those charged by San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland, Long Beach and Glendale.

But news of the budget proposal surprised Jim Alger, a Northridge activist who led last year’s neighborhood council opposition to a proposed 18% water rate increase. That battle forced the DWP to cut the increase to 11%.

Alger predicted he and others would fight an increase that would raise nearly the same amount -- $28 million -- as the surplus revenue proposed in the DWP budget to be transferred next year to the city general fund.