Legal War Could Raise Local Water Rates

A loss in a legal battle for one of San Gabriel Valley’s largest wholesale water districts could mean significant increases in water rates for local customers, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported yesterday.

As Three Valleys Municipal Water District joins the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in a legal war against San Diego County Water Authority, Three Valleys officials said that if San Diego wins and leaves the water districts out of negotiations for cheaper rates, customers could expect to see a 30 percent rate increase, according to the paper.

By Three Valleys’ estimates, it could pay up to $2.5 million more a year from MWD, according to The Tribune.

This would affect 550,000 Three Valleys customers including those in Glendora, San Dimas, Claremont, Pomona, Walnut, Diamond Bar, La Verne and West Covina.

While 80 percent of Glendora’s water supply comes from the city’s water wells, 20 percent is purchased from Three Valleys, the city’s wholesale retailer.

Foothill Municipal Water District serving Altadena, La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge is also signed onto the lawsuit with MWD.

In the lawsuit, SDCWA is challenging MWD’s rate structure and allocation of costs. In response, MWD is accusing plaintiff SDCWA of trying to make MWD’s 26 water agencies pay for a botched side water purchase from Imperial County in 2003, a decision MWD says cost SDCWA $200 million.

“If San Diego is successful, water ratepayers in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino will see cumulative costs of a staggering $3 billion shifted to them over the 75-year period,” Three Valleys wrote in a prepared statement.

However, SDCWA is claiming a “secret shadow government” within MWD is pushing millions of unjustified charges onto San Diego County ratepayers, according to the North County Times.

“MWD is supposed to be governed by its duly appointed governing body: a 37-member board of directors appointed by Metropolitan Water District’s 26 member agencies,” said Michael T. Hogan, chair of the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors in a press statement.  “But, for more than two years, major decisions at MWD have first been determined by a shadow government operating in secrecy, outside the public’s view, and then rubber-stamped by a majority of MWD’s Board of Directors.”

In a letter to the San Diego Union-Tribune, MWD General Manager Jeffery Kightlinger denied the allegation and accused SDCWA of “tactics” to “deceive” the public about SDCWA’s decision to “purchase expensive water from the Imperial Irrigation District instead of buying cheaper water from Metropolitan.”

According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Kightlinger is hoping to conclude the case in the fall.