Price of Water Likely To Rise

The general manager of the East Bay Municipal Utility District made it official.

On Tuesday, General Manager Alexander Coate recommended to the water agency's board of directors that it approve a 12 percent rate hike over the next two years.

The increase would come in two stages — 6 percent in fiscal year 2012 and 6 percent in fiscal year 2013.

The board will hold a public hearing on the proposal at its June 14 meeting. Members will vote on the rate-hike plan at that meeting. The new rates would take effect July 1.

If approved, the rate hike would increase the monthly water bill for a typical EBMUD household using 270 gallons a day from $38.66 to $43.45 over the next two years.

EBMUD officials said the hike is necessary because of the rising cost of gasoline and other materials used in their water delivery system. They also said customers have used less water the past three years, decreasing the district's water sale revenue by 15 percent.

They noted the district has frozen 200 positions the past several years, resulting in a savings of $20 million. The EBMUD employees' unions also agreed to a two-year moratorium on pay raises.

“These are really difficult times for the district and for our customers,” said Coate. “We are doing everything that we can to make it through this budget crisis and maintain the best service we can for our customers.”

The rate-hike plan is part of a $372 million budget for fiscal year 2012 and $395 million budget in fiscal year 2013. The current year's budget is $369 million.

The proposal comes in a year in which EBMUD has plenty of water, with the district's reservoirs at or near capacity. That's before significant melting of the Sierra Nevada's above-average snow pack.

Charles Hardy, a spokesman for EBMUD, said it might be difficult for customers to accept a rate hike when they've been saving water the past few years.

However, he said most of the rate increase is related to higher gas prices as well as increased costs for chemicals used to treat drinking water. He said the cost of materials used for the pipelines that deliver the water also has risen.

"All these costs are going up," said Hardy. "I think we're all making sacrifices, doing more with less, to keep delivering water to our customers."