Water rates in San Diego will increase just over 2 percent on Wednesday, part of a five-step incremental spike over four years that will amount to a compounded rate hike of 35 percent. The rate increase comes one week after an audit found 2,750 individual water bills last year were incorrect and had to be readjusted because of errors by meter readers.
Re “County water move has its costs” (July 1): The San Diego Union-Tribune addressed an important regional question on whether the San Diego County Water Authority’s decades-long strategy to create a reliable portfolio of water supplies is worth the cost. Unfortunately, the story omitted clear-cut evidence that the region’s supply reliability strategy is an unqualified success: Our independent water supplies from the Colorado River are both less expensive and more reliable than supplies from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which have been cut twice in the past decade by drought.
A new report from City Auditor Eduardo Luna about erroneous water bills serves as a clear indictment of the city’s Public Utilities Department. It detailed how 2,750 water bills sent to residents in 2017 were incorrect, often by hundreds of dollars, and that the problem stemmed from mistakes made by the city’s 36 meter readers — 10 of whom were to blame for 71 percent of the errors. Luna’s audit noted that just in the month of December, one meter reader was responsible for about 330 mistakes. That person no longer works for the city, which is a relief.
A major, months-long audit of the city’s utilities department, sparked by a public outcry over high water bills, concluded that 2,750 water bills sent to San Diego residents last year were incorrect and had to be readjusted while discovering that 10 meter readers accounted for 71 percent of the errors. The city audit released Thursday also found that meter readers figured out how to bypass an accuracy check required when meters are read and the city’s Public Utilities Department doesn’t measure the performance of its 36 meter readers.
The San Diego County Water Authority is expanding a long-running partnership with San Diego Gas & Electric to increase the availability of devices that save both water and energy for thousands of income-qualified residents across the region. The Water Authority’s investment of $150,000 will supplement funding for water-saving devices, allowing SDG&E’s Energy Savings Assistance Program to serve more customers. Approximately 21,000 residents annually have participated in the program, receiving assistance for devices such as low-flow showerheads and efficient washing machines.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer Thursday called for “sweeping reform” within the Public Utilities Department following widespread complaints of inaccurate water billing from late 2017 into this year. Reports by City Auditor Eduardo Luna‘s office and business consulting firm West Monroe Partners found that meter reading employee errors, lack of oversight and insufficient quality control led to billing complaints, in addition to scheduled rate increases, higher water use after drought restrictions were lifted as well as a longer billing cycle between September and December.
Boating, fishing and hiking will be allowed again at Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet starting Friday, July 27 — more than a month after it closed because of an algal bloom outbreak. Water quality tests confirmed the potential health effects of a large bloom of blue-green algae had diminished, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California said in a Wednesday, July 25, news release.
Clean energy storage is a billion-dollar problem — but Elon Musk aside, a number of technologists are eyeing existing infrastructure and wondering how it could, effectively, serve the function of a giant battery. Take the California utility proposal Next City reported on earlier this year. Because school buses operate on fixed schedules and sit idle during peak demand times, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. wants to study whether electric school buses can effectively store power from renewables, and then send that power back to the grid when necessary.
The San Diego County Water Authority Wednesday announced expanded funding for a partnership with San Diego Gas & Electric that increases the availability of devices that save water and energy for thousands of income-qualified residents. The Water Authority is investing an additional $150,000 into SDG&E’s Energy Savings Assistance Program, which funds the purchase of devices like low- flow showerheads and efficiency washing machines. “We are committed to helping the San Diego region make the most of our water supplies inside and outside their homes through a variety of innovative projects and programs,” said Mark Muir, chair of the Water Authority’s Board of Directors.
It has long been plain that California must do a better job of capturing rainfall and melting snow by adding water storage. Yet for decades, governors, lawmakers and bureaucrats have struggled to agree on funding for new or expanded dams or reservoirs — even as the state’s population has grown amid droughts from 25 million in 1982 to 40 million now.
