South County farmers could see their water rates increase by 50
percent Friday, while households face the first in a string of
planned increases that would double their rates over the next
decade.
Gilroy – South County farmers could see their water rates increase by 50 percent Friday, while households face the first in a string of planned increases that would double their rates over the next decade.
The higher fees are needed to pay the rising cost of maintaining dams, levees and water treatment plants operated by the Santa Clara Valley Water District, according to agency officials. Critics argue, however, that the district is simply forcing customers to shoulder costs without cutting some of the fat out the agency’s $240 million budget.
The agency’s cost-cutting efforts now threaten two programs that teach farmers to conserve water and use fertilizers effectively. The fewer than 100 growers now enrolled save a combined $150,000 on their annual water bills through discounts afforded to participants. By phasing out the program, the district hopes to save that money along with $250,000 in administration costs.
“For many years, we’ve been giving South County some real breaks in water rates in order to continue the agricultural economy,” said Sig Sanchez, a member of the district’s seven-person governing board.
But farmers have become too reliant on the discounts, suggested Sanchez, a retired farmer who has served 25 years on the board. Farmers who participate in both programs save up to $7 per acre-foot of water (enough to fill a football field one foot deep) on the $21.50 per acre-foot rate they would normally pay. The water board will decide Friday if they should eliminate the programs now in their seventh year, Sanchez said, explaining they were originally intended to last three years.
“The intent of the programs was so farmers could learn to do these things themselves on their farms,” he said. “But what has happened is that people have signed up for three years, then another three years and another three years.”
Sanchez plans to propose a phasing out of the program Friday, so that farmers currently enrolled would run the course of the program but not be able to renew. If approved, the district would stop accepting any new applications, with the last discounts expiring in 2009.
The district justifies the changes on grounds that farmers, whether they like it or not, are now required to take courses in water conservation, fertilizer use and other eco-friendly practices to satisfy requirements imposed by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. Farmers who once may have needed discounts to lure them into adopting better practices now face mandates and potential fines.
The district is shooting itself in the foot by phasing out the programs, said Jenny Derry, the executive director of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau. The county’s roughly 500 farms provide an invaluable service to the district, she said, by keeping land open free from pavement and allowing rainwater to recharge aquifers.
“I think farmers have stayed in the program because it provides discounts and they are very important to farmers,” Derry added. “And I think they have learned a lot that has helped them improve operations and save money on the bottom line.”
She predicted that most farmers would survive the loss of the discounts, but she said “the bigger story” is the continued increases in water rates South County has seen in recent years.
Yearly water rates for the average five-person home have nearly doubled in the last five years, from $130 in 2001 to $230 this year. Officials are now planning to raise those rates to $255 per year, the first in a decade of yearly increases ranging from 8 to 11 percent annually. By 2017, South County residents can expect to be paying roughly $500 a year for water. North County residents will pay twice that much under the district’s 10-year outlook. On Wednesday, the water district board approved a $5 increase to $475 per acre-foot of water for North County residents. By 2017, the district plans to have raised North County rates to $970 per acre-foot of water.
“In the past two years we had minimal increases because we were doing some audits and surveys to find out the areas that needed the most support,” said agency spokeswoman Susan Siravo. “We do foresee having to increase rates between 8 and 11 percent yearly. The reason for that is, we just need to make sure all our infrastructure stays in the best condition it can be.”
But the water rate increases stem as much from “overhead” as its facilities, according to Terry Mahurin, a long-time critic of the agency and member of the San Martin Perchlorate Community Advisory Group. Mahurin has spent years combing through the financials of the district, which now employs about 800 people.
“They’ve got this enormous infrastructure that they have to support and they do that through the raising of the rates,” he said. “So yes, there’s a problem there with the water district, and the people in South County are paying the price for that, as they are in North County.”
The water district board will meet Friday at 9:30am to discuss South County water rates. The meeting takes place at the agency’s headquarters at 5700 Almaden Expressway, San Jose.
