In two years, almost every major agreement currently keeping battle swords sheathed on the Colorado River will expire. Seven western states and Mexico will have to wrestle with the fact that there’s less water for their people and industries than before. And they have until 2026 to get new agreements to use much, much less water in place.
Oceanside’s water rates could climb 6 percent in 2024 and another 6 percent in 2025 under a proposal outlined this week by the city’s water utilities director.
The increases are the result of rate hikes by the Metropolitan Water District, Southern California’s biggest water wholesaler, and the San Diego County Water Authority, which buys water from Metropolitan and sells it to local agencies.
“We are directly passing through those rates,” Oceanside Water Utilities Director Lindsay Leahy said Tuesday in a presentation to the city’s Water Utilities Commission. The proposal is scheduled to go to the Oceanside City Council for approval Nov. 15.
On a 5-3 vote, the San Diego City Council approved a series of water rate increases Tuesday totaling nearly 20% over the next two years, following a public hearing during which San Diegans largely urged the body to reject the hikes.
The first adjustment will be an increase of 5%, effective Dec. 1, 2023, followed by a 5.2% increase on July 1, 2024, and an increase of 8.7% effective Jan. 1, 2025. While ratepayers have previously seen smaller increases, Tuesday’s rate adjustment is the first comprehensive jump in rates since 2015.
“This is a significant magnitude of a fee increase,” said Councilmember Kent Lee. “I think it was pointed out earlier that we have not had a rate increase of this magnitude for several years and it will have a significant impact on residents.”
San Diego water rates will rise nearly 20 percent over the next two years after a divided City Council approved Tuesday the first comprehensive rate hike in nearly eight years.
The rate increases, approved by a vote of 5-3, will come in three parts: A 5 percent hike on Dec. 1, a 5.2 percent increase next July 1 and an 8.75 percent jump in January 2025. An earlier version of the proposal would have raised the rates more quickly — by 10.2 percent on Dec. 1 and 8.75 percent in January 2025.
City council is expected to vote on a nearly 20% increase to water rates for San Diego residents.
If approved, this would increase rates 10.2% beginning Dec. 1, 2023, then up to an additional 8.7% beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
Mayor Todd Gloria said this would equate to an approximate $12 increase to the average residents’ monthly bill.
San Diego water bills would rise nearly 20% under a rate-increase proposal the City Council is scheduled to consider Tuesday.
The increase, which city officials began studying last fall, would be the first comprehensive rate hike approved by the council in nearly eight years. It would include a 10.2 increase this December and an 8.75% jump in January 2025.
A petition that has garnered more than 1,800 signatures on change.org is challenging the accuracy of the data that the City of Pleasanton has presented about proposed water rate increases.
The Pleasanton City Council meets next Tuesday to consider raising water rates starting in November. The city says residents would be charged an average of $33 more every two months to start, but rates could go up as much as $75 for that same time period by 2026.
More than a thousand people have recently signed a new petition to ask the Pleasanton City Council and city staff to postpone the upcoming decision to increase water rates.
Water flows out of a household tap in Pleasanton.
The petition on change.org, which cites just over 1,600 signatures as of Wednesday morning, claims that city officials have not done a good job communicating accurate information about their proposal — which is a shared concern among some residents.
The county Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday to support state legislation that would require a vote by all customers served by water districts within the San Diego County Water Authority before individual districts can leave the authority.
The San Diego county Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday to support state legislation that would require a vote by all customers served by water districts within the County Water Authority before individual districts can leave the authority.
Proposed by Supervisor Joel Anderson in a board letter, the policy follows a July 10 decision from the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission to allow the Rainbow Municipal Water District and Fallbrook Public Utility District to leave the water authority.
