Valley Forum: In protest of higher water rates

After reading the city’s 2014 Water Rate Study, I must again call on Sonoma’s water service customers to join me in protesting against the proposed higher water rates. I strongly objected to these in 2012 and the City Council voted not to implement the increases then. The study mentions this, but does not show that the council did so unanimously, with members suggesting, among others ideas, a need to:

Do “more due diligence”;

Look at consolidating functions with the Valley of the Moon Water District to reduce costs;

Examine the allocation of fixed versus usage costs;

Explore why fixed and usage rates in near-by cities are cheaper;

Question the Sonoma County Water Agency’s charges.

Two years later, it seems none of this has been done. Nothing has changed!

From my viewpoint as a small residential user, the new proposed rate structure makes no more sense than the previous one. Except for steepening the rate increases for higher usage and lessening these for low usage over the next five years, the real problem with the water rate structure is left unchallenged: namely, that fixed service fees, which have nothing to do with usage, are used as a major revenue stream for the water service “regardless of the amount of water used.”

By their very name, utility costs should be based on usage; the high fixed service fee places an unfair burden on low water users.

The new proposals are also contrary to stated objectives of the current study to “encourage reduced water usage of all water users” and to “determine a fair and equitable allocation of water system costs to ratepayers.” The study indicates that fixed costs of the water system are estimated at 20 percent and “the remaining 80 percent of the costs (are) to be recovered from volume charges.”

But the reality for households with low water usage is very different. According to census figures, single-family residences make up over half of Sonoma households and the average household size here is only 2.07 persons. Presumably that includes the one-quarter of Sonoma residents who are seniors, probably retired and on a fixed income. It is for these smaller households of generally low water users where the fixed water fee is an inequitable and unacceptable percentage of the water bill.

In my own case, 60 percent of my water bill has been for the fixed fee in recent years. This year, as I reduced my usage further to conserve water, the fixed fee (no longer shown separately in the new monthly billings) has gone up to 66 percent of the total bill. The proposed new fixed fee for the usual residential meter size will increase by another 11 percent in 2015 and a total of 35 percent by 2019, so the fixed fee portion of my water bill will become even greater during these coming years. This is neither fair nor an incentive to conserve water.

Considering also that, over the past 10 years, my basic water fees and rates have increased by 58 percent while basic electric rates have risen 29 percent and household gas rates (which vary, but comparing highest vs. lowest) by 36 percent, one should question why water rates (and sewage, which is up 75 percent) keep increasing so much more. And there are other aspects of this study and rate proposal that could use more justification.

I appreciate that the water infrastructure must be maintained and that some adjustments in rates may be needed periodically, but not in this way - on the backs of those who are already using the least amounts.

Mail or deliver your protest to the City Clerk as indicated in the public hearing notice you received.

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Gerry Simmel is a Sonoma resident.

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