Comments on: LANDSCAPE WHILE CONSERVING WATER

By: L. Baker

L. Baker — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:25:04 +0000

Try putting yourself in the shoes of the YLWD. Remember, YLWD buys groundwater and buys imported MWD water, and they deliver that water to their customers thru one of the most technically complex delivery systems around, thanks to Yorba Linda’s scenic topography. When their water costs go up, they have little choice but to raise rates. And, when their water supplies are curtailed and they are ordered to “persuade” their customers to use less water, there is still a staff to pay and infrastructure to operate and maintain, even though it’s delivering a little less water. The Board of Directors had been holding rates artificially low for a number of years while the YLWD had been running increasingly in the red. The recent round of imported water cost hikes from MWD finally pushed them over the edge, and we all saw a big rate increase, much of which we should have seen in smaller steps over the past few years. So, be happy — the water you used over the last couple of years was cheaper than it should have been. Finally, a large chunk of the recent rate increase goes to repay bonds issued to finance new construction, such as replacing the 1911 Highland Reservoir, building the long delayed Hidden Hills Reservoir, and adding facilities to enable emergency groundwater distribution across the entire service area in case of disruption of imported MWD water deliveries.

By: Jan Horton

Jan Horton — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:51:36 +0000

The Water District is a separate entity, the Council does not set the rates for the water and we find ourselves in the same predicament since we are the water districts’ largest customer. The City challenge is reducing our use of water. We have started looking at areas we currently water that we do not have an easement over and do not own. We are also looking at areas we do have an easement for but there is not a clear public benefit, ie behind someones home. If the water district feels further reductions are necessary, then we have to make some hard choices of where to cut back water usage. This has clearly not been easy and has already sparked criticism, especially in the wake of the fires.

By: J Garcia

J Garcia — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:33:49 +0000

Jan,
H Brown is right…..this is not fair. If we don’t conserve water, we get fined and when we do conserve water ( I heard 15% Citywide), the rates go up as YLWD is not selling as much water! I agree, this is frustrating, but what are you going to do about this dilemma ?

By: Jan Horton

Jan Horton — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:20:24 +0000

That is frustrating~

By: H Brown

H Brown — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:57:13 +0000

We just saw our rates go up from YLWD after taking serious conservation measures. If we continue to conserve, won’t the YLWD continue to sell us less water? Doesn’t selling less water negatively impact YLWD revenue? Why then should we care to try using even less water – so we can have another rate hike because revenues are down?

It’s really the craziest thing if you think about it: use too much water, pay more; use too little water, pay more. Quite a cushy deal for the YLWD. . .not so much for consumers.