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Long Beach Water and Sewer Rates Increasing Oct 1st ; Water Commission Approves Combined 15.8 Percent Increase; 2 percent will mitigate lost revenue due to extraordinary water conservation effort

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 26, 2008 at 7:42 am

From the Long Beach Water Department, this press release:

The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners unanimously approved an increase in water and sewer rates for FY 2009 a combined 15.8 percent for all Long Beach Water Department customers, subject to a special public protest hearing to be held on September 18th. The increase will add an additional $5.39 per month to the typical single family household’s water bill, and an additional $1.30 per month to the typical single family household’s sewer bill. The total monthly combined increase for water and sewer service will be $6.69, or $80.28 annually.

The increase in water and sewer rates is driven by the sharp increase in the core costs of providing water and sewer service; many of those costs, like imported water purchases, are unavoidable. In addition to cost increases, the immediate and unavoidable need to reduce consumption of water due to an imminent, prolonged water supply shortage in California, has resulted in losses in water sales revenue used to fund core services. A small percentage (2 percent) of the combined 15.8 percent water & sewer rate increase for FY 2009 will be used to mitigate these revenue losses.

“The increase to water and sewer rates is substantial, and unavoidable,” according to Bill Townsend, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. “Imported water, upon which our city is heavily reliant, is up 14.3 percent and is expected to get significantly more expensive with each year. Construction, power, water treatment, labor and other fees and assessments we are required to pay are all up substantially. We have done everything we can as a Board, in the limited areas where we can, to mitigate these cost increases, including a 40 percent reduction next year in our water main replacement and rehabilitation program.”

For the Fiscal Year ’07-’08, water consumption in Long Beach is 6.5 percent below the 10-year average for water consumption. In turn, projected sales for 2009 have been reduced by 7 percent, an impact of $3.7 million. Water sales revenue constitutes 73.1 percent of the Long Beach Water Department’s total annual revenue. In 2009, revenue resulting from the sale of water will total $75.7 million.

“This rate increase has very little to do with our conservation success over the last 11 months,” according to Kevin L. Wattier, General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department. “Our operational costs, like the cost of imported water and electricity, are increasing at a rate greatly in excess of general inflation.”

The Board of Water Commissioners will hold a special public hearing to consider any public protest of their proposed increases to water and sewer rates for FY 2009, which begins October 1, 2008. This hearing will be held on Thursday, September 18, 2008, at 7:00 p.m., at the Long Beach Groundwater Treatment Plant Assembly Room, located at 2950 Redondo Avenue, Long Beach, California.

On July 10, 2008, the Board of Water Commissioners adopted a $105 million budget for the Long Beach Water Department for FY 2009.

For detailed information about the increase in water and sewer rates or the special public protest hearing scheduled for September 18th, please visit www.lbwater.org., or call (562) 570-2300.

The Long Beach Water Department is an urban, southern California, retail water supply agency and the standard in water conservation and environmental stewardship.

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Ryan J. Alsop
Director of Government & Public Affairs
Long Beach Water

July 26, 2008 · Filed Under Long Beach Water Department

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