The city of La Palma is considering a new, tiered rate structure for water and sewer rates which has built-in incentives to stay within a water budget. The item was heard at the December 22, 2009 city council meeting. Council directed that the public involvement part of the process begin, so look for hearings, study sessions or other forms of outreach regarding the plan.
La Palma operates their own water enterprise system using both groundwater and imported water. The Orange County Water District (OCWD) manages the groundwater basin and sets limits for pumping of groundwater. Imported water is purchased from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan or MWD) thru the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC.)
For FY 2009-10, La Palma will receive slightly less water from MWD than in the past - about 95% of the previous year's purchase. For water purchases from MWD within the 95% allotment, the price is $249/acre foot. If the City goes over their quota, the price goes up to $1981/acre foot. The 5% loss of allocation cannot be made up simply by pumping more groundwater because the OCWD has allocated each city their share of groundwater, which cannot be exceeded.
As a way of keeping the City within the water budget and not getting a huge water bill for going over budget, a new tiered pricing structure for water and sewer rates is proposed. Single family users will have three tiers, the first tier being fairly low cost to encourage people to stay within their water budget and the third tier is over twice as expensive as the first tier.
Multi-family and non-residential users will be divided into groups based on meter size and will have two tiers of service. The second tier will be over twice as expensive as the first tier.
Sewer services will also be tiered because the amount of discharge generated is proportional to the amount of water used.
The dates of the public input sessions have not been announced yet.
The report with the proposed rate increases is available here Download LaPalmaWaterSewerRateStudy
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