San Diego’s Water Department Is Not Alright

Amid handwringing at San Diego City Hall over next week’s vote to hike water rates, city analysts dropped a harrowing report revealing how easily the department that handles water and wastewater could collapse without them.

There are whispers that Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration is struggling to get the votes to pass a four-year proposed 63 percent rate hike and 31 percent wastewater rate hike Tuesday. But the city’s independent budget analysts sharply warned against doing anything that would starve the Public Utilities Department of more revenue.