The northern Sacramento Valley was well on its way to recording the hottest July on record when the Carr fire swept into town Thursday. It was 113 degrees, and months of above-average temperatures had left the land bone-dry and ready to explode. Within a few hours, hundreds of structures were lost and six people killed.
Sea surface temperatures in Southern California — especially spots in San Diego like Solana Beach — have been unusually warm for weeks. The National Weather Service issued a computer graphic late Monday that shows where the hottest temperatures are being recorded (the areas in red.) “Water temperatures from lifeguards are 72 to 78F and this is shown in satellite imagery depicting much above normal readings (anomaly) in the California Bight,” the weather service said on Facebook.
Painful, inaccurate water bills have eroded trust in the City of San Diego’s Public Utilities Department. However, the city says it is committed to earning that trust back, vowing to fix major problems. They’ve launched a tool customers can use immediately to take control of their water usage and bills.
The recent audit on the city’s sky-high water bills was under review Monday. The San Diego City Council’s audit committee held a special meeting to look into it after more than 2,700 incorrect water bills were sent out last year. In that special meeting Monday morning, the committee reviewed performance audits on the Public Utilities Department’s water billing operations. This all comes months after hundreds of San Diego residents were over charged for water usage.
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.
