The San Diego City Council is set to vote next week on a series of water rate increases that could raise the average household bill by about $18 per month. Rates would then continue climbing by roughly the same amount each year for the next three years.
That's a 63% increase over four years.
But City Council President Joe LaCava said support for the plan might be slipping.
“The number of us on the council that are willing to say, 'this looks bad, I'm gonna regret this vote, but I voted for it at the budget time, and I've gotta stick with it,' and that number is getting smaller and smaller,“ he said. “And so as the council president, I'm beginning a little concerned about how do we actually deliver all that new revenue that we built into the budget.”
That would be notable because the city and the San Diego County Water Authority already essentially bought what they are raising rates to pay for.
Why water rates are rising
Water rates are going up because of the massive investments the county water authority and the city are making. Those include:
- Long-term agreements to buy water from farmers in Imperial Valley.
- Construction of the Carlsbad desalination plant.
- Development of a large wastewater recycling system.
Those deals are done. If the City Council balks at paying for them, we’ll enter uncharted territory. It would also raise questions about whether the Water Authority took on too much debt.
Bigger questions about San Diego’s water future
Those questions would not be good timing for people who care about the Water Authority.
Recently, we also learned that some want to consider disbanding the water authority. Mainly, an organization called the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO.
They periodically do what’s called Municipal Service reviews of local governments. And it’s doing one now on the Water Authority. It could recommend disbanding it, or absorbing it into the larger Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles or other local agencies.
If that happens, we could be in for years of jockeying for the future of water politics in San Diego.
The first big question is what happens next week with water rates in San Diego. It’ll matter for your family’s budget and for San Diego’s future.
