RED ALERT: $12M Budget Shortfall; SFPUC Leans Toward 10% Annual Water Rate Increase over Next 4 Years: Water Consumption Down in Bay Area, So Get Ready to Pay A Lot More for Your Water! (Kelly Zito, SanFranciscoChronicle)

Apr.20, 2009 in Public Works, Water Conservation

(April 19, 2009, Kelly Zito, The San Francisco Chronicle)

“We’re out there telling people to use less water, and yet a lot of the revenue we have is based on what people use,” said Gary Breaux, finance director for the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.3 million people in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. “It’s a circular thing.”

The district was the first in the Bay Area to enact water rationing last year after the driest spring since the Gold Rush days. Now it faces a conservation-related shortfall of about $12 million…

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the largest water district in the region, is leaning toward 10 percent annual rate increases over the next four years. Marin Municipal Water District plans a 7.3 percent bump…

EBMUD customers now pay $1.82 for each 748 gallons they use, up to 5,236 gallons - which is enough to fill about 100 bathtubs. For comparison’s sake, a 16-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee costs $1.75.

For each 748 gallons after that, up to 11,968 gallons, customers pay $2.26, or 24 percent more. Above 11,968 gallons, each 748 gallons costs $2.77 – a 23 percent increase.

Zetland proposes that customers in the two upper tiers pay closer to $4 and $8 respectively.

“If you double the variable costs of water, conservation goes up and (water district) costs for energy and treatment go down,” Zetland said. “You could actually have a ‘profit’ which you could rebate back to the water misers. If you use little water, you could actually have a negative water bill.”

(Original Article Here)