I am proposing to the Coastside County Water District that the organization move to a water price schedule for residential users that is “linear”, I mean “linear” as they should sell water by the unit with no bi-monthly $30 fixed charge.

Using algebra, water bills presently have a “y=mx + b” price structure. The “b” term is a fixed bi-monthly charge of about $30. The “mx” term is a quantity charge of about $3 per hundred cubic feet (HCF) of water.

A typical $40 to $60 bi-monthly water bill is about 1/2 fixed monthly and 1/2 a variable part caused by using between 8 and 12 HCF units of water. A HCF is about 748 gallons.

What I propose is the CCWD move to a “y=mx” price structure. To balance the revenues, the “mx” a water price must be pushed up. I have used $5 per HCF as a convenient example value.

Attached is a graph. The dark blue line is the proposed billing structure which is a 6.6% increase over current rates. The purple line is a linear price based on $5 per HCF. The X axis units are HCF or Hundred Cubic Feet of Water used. The Y axis units are dollars of bi-monthly water bill.

The reasons for moving to the “linear to zero” price structure are all about enabling conservation. To make the same point several times:

  1. We need to enable individual water users to experience a return on their investment in low water consumption lifestyles and systems.

  2. When a residential water user evaluates the costs of installing low water usage systems, the “payback” or “water bill savings” begins to collapse when a household begins operating at the below 10 HCF performance level.

  3. The linear to zero water rate scheme puts CCWD in the “water conservation business”. The frontier and construction area for ultra low water consumption is in homes, The capital expenditures made by CCWD are to facilitate public safety and water usage. The place where investments in low water usage must be made is in residential homes. The water bill fixed monthly charge is forcing money to flow in the wrong direction away from home water conservation system improvement.

Lee,
You’re idea is a good one. Unfortunately, the current elected CCWD directors are not in the “water conservation business.” They are in a completely different kind of business: expanding the water supply infrastructure to fuel future housing development and then sticking current residents with the bill.

I have written about CCWD’s financial exploitation of current resident’s funds elsewhere:
http://voiceofthecoast.com/2005/10/is_ccwd_a_good_steward_of_publ.html

In 2003 CCWD raised water rates by 9.6 percent. In 2005 they raised rates by 12 percent. In 2006, they raised water rates by 7 percent. Now in 2007, CCWD is proposing to raise water rates again by 6.6 percent. That amounts to a 40 percent increase in water rates in only 4 years!
   
Public Notice for CCWD’s 2007 proposed 6.6 percent rate increase
http://www.coastsidewater.org/noticeofrateincrease2007-08.pdf

At the same time, we see elected CCWD directors lobbying the County to approve diversion of priority CCWD water to support a giant housing/office development project that is not even located within CCWD’s service area boundary.

Link to article noting CCWD official lobbying for a big development project
http://coastsider.com/index.php/site/news/1612/

Does that seem like an agency that is interested in water conservation?

“I have written about CCWD’s financial exploitation of current resident’s funds elsewhere…”

Can you explain how linking your “articles” make your points valid?

Where do CCWD rates fit in with other similarly-sized communities on the CA coast?

The reason for the link is to avoid having to repeat myself.  I really don’t have time to reasearch other like-sized communities. I’m having a hard enough time extracting historical financial data from CCWD. The Half Moon Bay LCP requires CCWD to construct water supply facilities so as to “minimize the financial burden on existing residents.” They are not doing that. Paying for major water supply expansions with cash reserves accumulated from current residents’ water bills is maximizing the financial burden on exisiting residents.

Recently there was the question by Kevin Stokes: “five dollar gas, then what?”

The discussion following Kevin’s question got me thinking: “How is the present green or carbon triggered global warming crisis” similar to the 1973 and 1979 energy or gasoline crises?

Well it seems to me that despite these previous crises I still live a version of the American System lifestyle as expressed on the Coastside: burning gasoline to drive over Devil’s slide, sloshing around with credit card debt, coming home to water bills, cable bills, electricity bills, property taxes, phone bills and a mortgage payment.

If anything, it seems there has been a “tilt” in the way our society works that favors consumption over other life practices.

I think the ability of a Pete’s Coffee franchisee to displace Raman Bechar from his modest coffee business occurs because the business of converting us all into more intense consumers is still proceeding apace.

So the way our social systems should change, methinks, is to look for ways to change the microeconomics back in favor of less consumption.

The linear water rates proposal is a small step in that direction.

There is plenty of time to explore the idea with the CCWD. They completely ignored my email submission to the public hearing process. I sent my submission to the email address of the CCWD Board President.

So we are just talking with each other right now.

It might be a good idea to attend the CCWD Board’s meeting at 7:30 pm tonight - take a look at their agenda:
http://www.coastsidewater.org/water-district-board.html

It looks like they they are going to be talking about LOT of rate-payer financed infra-structure related items which may involve environmental/growth inducing issues.

Barb Mauz

Didn’t make the CCWD Board’s meeting last night? Watch CH6 - MCTV’s broadcast of this meeting at 7:00 p.m. tonight.

Forewarned is forearmed, people.

Barb Mauz

Conservation of water and energy needs to rise above poliltics, if we are serious about bequeathing a livable planet to our children and grandchildren.

Thank you Lee for suggesting that CCWD adopt a linear water rate schedule.

Sofia Freer

Note that the CCWD Board will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday, July 10th at 7:00 p.m. to consider an increase to the Water Rate of up to 6.6% - See their agenda here: http://www.coastsidewater.org/water-district-board.html

Two questions about this are (1) How often to they intend to repeat this practice and, (2) What is their justification for this/future Water Rate Increase(s)?

Barb Mauz

I wish to thank Sofia Freer for appearing at the July 10th CCWD Board Meeting. She advocated for a more aggressive water conservation policy and mentioned my linear rate proposal.

At the same board meeting, I orally delivered my proposal for “linear to zero” water rates.

The action of the Board on the rate increase was to vote for a 6.6% increase. I did not write that number down so you should check a publication for the correct value..

I feel the Board listened to my proposal. The main action was the 6.6% increase. I was invited to communicate more with persons within the CCWD.

I have been further exploring my water rate proposal over the past few weeks. I have realized that this is a big snootful of a proposal for a water district to absorb.

The “linear rate structure” is basically presenting a very specific rate structure to the customers for the very specific purpose of making it economical to invest in water usage reduction.. For the CCWD utility, the problem is to get assurance that the resulting rates will produce the needed income and the rates will not cause customer instability, suits or revolt.

The linear structure likely would create a whole market of conservation services and contractors. The problem for CCWD is how fast will water use change and how does the CCWD get paid money for water conservation assistance that it previously gave away for free.

Is there anybody out there in Coastsider Town Hall reader land who can help me locate published economic or microeconomic research of case studies of other utilities altering their rate structure toward “linear” rates?

What the CCWD needs is comparative information so they can understand how their user base will change when they release us from the fixed monthly charge part of the water bill.

“Linear to zero water rates” are not workable. I learned that from several email exchanges with a helpful CCWD director.

I have come up with another way of adjusting the Coastside County Water District residential rates to enable water customers who use less than 10 HCF of water in a 2 month billing period to experience “reasonable rate of return on their investment in water conservation.”

The problem at present is if you figure out how to reduce your water consumption drastically, you still pay a “Base charge” of $30.19 per month simply for the privilege of having a 3/4” water connection to the CCWD.

The change in the rate structure I am suggesting (now, after revisions) is the water bill for people who use less than 10 HCF (per 2 month billing period) have the “Base charge” limited to the same amount as the “Water usage” bill. This change benefits only customers who use less than 10 HCF of water.

This rate change opens the door for innovative and ingenious approaches to operating a household on less water. The rate change benefits only a small fraction of the CCWD user base and the financial burden shifted to other users will probably be small.

I have posted a PDF document that models this water rate change with numbers and a graph:

  “http://home.comcast.net/~lmckusic/waterratewithcapping.pdf”

Coastside County Water District (CCWD) Rate Payers need to be aware of the current CCWD Board’s actions - for instance, is this Board’s construction plans/work on the 16” diameter El Granada Water Transmission Pipeline project in full compliance with the Coastal Commission’s condition’s of approval? is there anything that could be growth inducing in their plans/work? are their water transfers in compliance with Half Moon Bay’s CDP requirements? what is the true status of CCWD’s remaining water supply & connections?

You can watch the last CCWD Board meeting that took place on 7/20/07 at 3:00 p.m. on MCTV (CH6) tonight - 7/25/07 - at 7:00 p.m. - see the agenda with attachments below. /Barb Mauz

http://www.coastsidewater.org/agendas/072007agenda/072007SagendaWithAttachments.pdf

For unknown reasons MCTV (CH 6) failed to broadcast CCWD’s Board meeting that took place on 7/20/07 at 3:00 p.m. (not the Board’s regular monthly meeting date/time) on Wednesday, 7/25/07 at 7:00 p.m. as stated on both CCWD’s agenda and MCTV’s schedule which appeard all day Tuesday up until 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 7/25 when the meeting was set to be shown but unfortunately, for those expecting to be able to watch this meeting, it was not broadcast.

In a telephone discussion yesterday afternoon with CCWD’s Acting General Manager, Joe Guistino, I reported MCTV’s failure to broadcast the 7/20 CCWD Board meeting. Joe said that he had not been aware that MCTV hadn’t broadcast the Board’s meeting of 7/20 on the 25th as had been scheduled.

Joe agreed with me that it is CCWD’s responsibility to see to it that MCTV broadcasts the Board’s meetings as scheduled as it is the request of the CCWD Board that CCWD Rate Payers watch their meetings and keep themselves informed and that it isn’t possible unless MCTV properly broadcasts their meetings.

Joe told me that he was going to call MCTV immediately and instruct MCTV to broadcast the Board meeting from 7/20 but that he couldn’t say when the broadcast would take place. Note that MCTV purports to be this Coastside’s “Public Access Channel” and is receiving a good deal of funding from San Mateo County to broadcast local government meetings for people in the Mid-Coast and Half Moon Bay; they are not doing that on a consistant basis.

Contact MCTV’s Manager to find out when they are going to broadcast the 7/20 CCWD meeting and also to voice your concerns at 726-1750. /Barb Mauz

Attention CCWD Rate Payers & Other Interested Parties, per the MCTV (CH 6) Schedule below, the 7/20/07 meeting of the CCWD Board will be broadcast on Monday, 7/30/07 at 7:00 p.m. /Barb Mauz

Show Detail: Coastside County Water District Board Meeting held 7-20-07
Show ID 5240

Event Date: 7/20/2007 —-  Length: 01:30:28

Category: Gov’t-CCWD Meeting

Schedule Information: 7/30/2007 at 7:00 PM

Lee McKusick, thanks for your idea on water rate restructuring. I saw your comment in another topic (“Wrecking the Tuolumne”, http://coastsider.com/index.php/townhall/viewthread/172/) and posted a response there.

Brian Ginna asks how Coastside County Water District’s rates compare to others in the area. From 2000 to 2007, CCWD’s rates have gone up 74.1%, and CCWD is facing significant future rate increases to pay for the seismic upgrades to the Hetch Hetchy system. (Estimates are that San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission, which sells water from the Hetch Hetchy system, will need to triple their wholesale costs to suburban water districts.)

During that same period, Montara Water and Sanitary District (MWSD) acquired the former Citizens Utilities water system, implemented a conservation-oriented tiered rate structure, and increased the base level consumption rates for residential users only 10.9% cumulatively over that period. Admittedly, MWSD’s starting point (the former Citizens Utilities rates) was higher, but the rate of increase is dramatically lower than CCWD’s.

Paul Perkovic, MWSD board member