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In This Issue...
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Soquel Creek Reduces Water Price Hike for a Year
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Driving Impaired: The Costs & Consequences
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Soquel Creek Reduces Water Price Hike for a Year
By Linda Fridy
In response to customer concerns about rising water rates, the board of the Soquel Creek Water District reduced its planned increase for 2010.
The district had proposed a rate hike of 9 percent for each of the next three years, but instead voted Nov. 17 for a 5 percent increase next year only.
Future rate increases will come back to the table for later discussion.
"We're trying to make things less painful in difficult times, trying to find a compromise," said board president Tom LaHue, who spent the weekend prior reading the comments that came in with rate protest letters. "A lot of people don't disagree with our goals, but flat-out said 'It's really tough for us right now.'"
The district serves about 49,000 customers from Capitola and Soquel south to La Selva Beach. Of those, 90 percent are residential.
The people who attended the meeting and wrote in about the rate hike changed the board's mind, although official protests fell far short of the majority that would have automatically defeated the plan.
"People coming to meetings really do make a difference," LaHue said. "It's not just about the numbers. Comments make a difference."
LaHue said he wants to find a middle ground between the immediate impact on customers and the future impact on rates that heavy borrowing could have.
District manager Laura Brown concurred, noting that the district had already planned to borrow for this fiscal year.
"You have to be in a good financial position with the bonding agencies to borrow money," she said.
The rate change will cost the water district $200,000 for the rest of this fiscal year, ending June 30, 2010, and that same amount for the first half of the next.
"We'll look at cutting expenses and identify the most critical funding for operations and capital projects," said Brown.
She added that some projects that have already gone out to bid have come in lower than expected, which may help address the shortfall.
Infrastructure Improvements Needed
The initial proposal, with a cumulative 30 percent increase over three years, would have helped finance the large number of capital projects faced by the district.
The district's water supply is threatened by overdrafting the aquifer, pumping out more water each year than nature can replenish. This practice can allow salt water to seep into wells located near the coast.
The district wants to relocate those wells. In addition, many of its 16 wells are old and the pumping equipment needs replacing.
The price tag for four to five new wells is more than $8.75 million, according to district manager Laura Brown.
The district plans to link its four service areas, which are currently not connected and cannot share water.
Soquel Creek Water District also needs to find an additional water supply, and toward that end partnered with Santa Cruz City's water district to investigate a combined-use desalination plant. The two agencies are splitting the $10 million costs of the pilot plant that finished operations earlier this year, plus related studies including an environmental impact report.
Costs to build a full-size plant are still unknown.
"We have to have a supplemental supply or things are not going to work in the long term," said LaHue. "It would be nice if my children and grandchildren could live here and have water."
Although some customers have questioned whether their recent conservation efforts have led to the need for rate increases, Brown has said that reduced water use is nothing new. The district consumes less water now than it did 15 years ago in spite of population growth.
The new rates will take effect Jan. 1, 2010. The water district previously changed its rate structure and raised prices for all but the smallest water users in March 2008.
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