Higher Water Bills on Tap for MMWD Customers?

The average water user in the Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD) could soon see an increase of $3.72 on the bimonthly water bill, if a proposed rate hike is approved by the district’s board of directors on April 27, according to MMWD Interim Finance Manager Oreen Delgado.

Speaking at a public workshop on April 20, Delgado and MMWD General Manager Paul Helliker outlined the district’s reasons for asking district users to pay 4 percent more for their water and service charges, effective May 1 for meter readings on or after July 1. Ironically, the request is largely due to the fact that customers have embraced the district’s conservation programs and are using less water.

“In 2007, we adopted a conservation master plan, and the goal of that plan was to decrease water consumption or demand by 8 percent,” said Delgado. “Since then we’ve decreased our consumption by 15 percent.”

That sounds great, but there’s just one problem. “The majority of our revenue comes from water sales and service charges,” said Delgado. “Between those two items it’s about 85 percent.”

With less water being sold, revenues are down, and many of the district’s fixed expenses are on the rise. That means it’s cost-cutting time.

“The budget for this year was originally $108 million,” said Helliker. “We’ve cut it to $90 million. So we’ve cut almost 20 percent out of our expenses this year.”

Gone are the conservation-equipment rebates, funding for new water-supply sources (such as recycled-water projects and desalination), meter-replacement projects, and outside maintenance contracts. Delgado says employee standby pay has been suspended, and overtime has been cut back significantly. But that still leaves rising fixed costs for such items as electricity (up 6%), chemicals (up 10%), and water purchases from Sonoma County (up 4%).

That latter expenditure drew heated comments from some ratepayers at the workshop, who were amazed to hear that with the district’s hand out and local reservoirs currently filled to the brim, the water flowing out of our taps right now is purchased Russian River water.

Helliker explained that Russian River water has generally accounted for about a quarter of the water delivered to MMWD customers. “We have about 20,000 acre feet of water supply we can reliably get from the reservoirs if we have a drought,” he said. “Currently we’re selling about 27,000 acre feet of water every year. So we’re short by that much, and that’s about the amount of water we buy from the Russian River.”

According to Helliker, the MMWD buys the Russian River water in winter, because that’s when Sonoma County makes it available. Using that water in winter allows MMWD reservoirs to stay full until summer, when the Russian River water is unavailable and local water needs peak. So even though “it might look strange that we’re buying water when the reservoirs are full,” it’s really a form of drought insurance.

That answer didn’t seem to satisfy several audience members, who had their own ideas about the MMWD budget. Mel Beck, a longtime San Rafael resident, suggested that the district could save money by cutting pay and benefits for the MMWD board members, among other measures.

“I still think there are some areas in which a lot more can be done,” he said. “You’re talking about our money. It’s the people of the district that are paying your salary and everybody right down the line. With the economy and the way things are — people are losing their homes. I know people who are going through bankruptcy. It just seems to me that if there’s some way to cut costs, to save the people some money, that you’d be on the first line to do it.”

Rather than raise rates, Beck suggested the district do the opposite. “You know, if you want to raise money, you have a sale,” he said. “Every well-organized company in the world does that. Cut the rate by 4 percent instead of raising it by 4 percent. People will use more water, you’ll get the money to flow in. This is just logic. Sales bring in money.”

Helliker defended the rate increase as relatively reasonable compared to the increases being levied by other water agencies in Northern California. “North Marin Water District in Novato just announced multiyear increases of 11 percent per year,” he said. “The same thing in Santa Clara Valley Water District — they’re facing multiyear rate increases of 9-1/2 percent. Our rate increase this year is pretty much on the low end of the scale compared to other organizations.”

The MMWD board of directors will hold a public hearing on the proposed rate hike at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27, at the San Rafael City Hall Council Chambers, 1400 Fifth Ave., in downtown San Rafael. Those wishing to protest the rate hike must do so in writing.

For more information on the proposal and the public hearing, go to www.marinwater.org/documents/rate_increase. For an online presentation of the MMWD financial picture, visit www.marinwater.org/documents/rate_workshop.