The East Bay Municipal Utility District this week approved a two-year, $2.25 billion budget, which includes 4 percent water rate hikes this year and next year.
EBMUD’s Board of Directors unanimously voted Tuesday to adopt the budget, which utility officials said will fund crucial improvements to the region’s water and wastewater systems.
Water and wastewater rates will increase 4 percent when the coming fiscal year begins July 1, and another 4 percent on July 1, 2022.
The average household using about 200 gallons of water per day will see their monthly bill increase by $2.53 on July 1, and another $2.66 on July 1, 2022, according to EBMUD.
The agency had originally forecasted rate increases of 5 percent, but backed off that total due in part to the economic fallout of the pandemic.
“We have carefully threaded the needle to meet the challenges facing our customers and our needs to invest in our critical infrastructure,” EBMUD Board President Doug Linney said.
The budget includes funding for roughly $800 million in capital infrastructure projects like replacing old pipelines and improving water and wastewater treatment plants to reduce their adverse effects on the climate.
EBMUD operates some 4,200 miles of pipeline, five reservoirs, six water treatment facilities, one wastewater treatment plant and has roughly 2,000 employees throughout the region.
“Our budget and rates are designed to ensure services remain resilient regardless of the situation we face, from the pandemic and Public Safety Power Shutoffs to earthquakes, droughts, fires and economic crises,”
EBMUD General Manager Clifford Chan said. “Our customers count on us to fulfill our promise to them and respond to these challenges.”
EBMUD water customers can visit ebmud.com/rates to view the agency’s current utility rates.
does anyone think rates would ever be approved to go down?
never happens, even when the drought is over, just like last time.
What’s going to happen when they enact drought restrictions, water usage goes down and revenue falls like the last drought because everyone is using less water?
For as long as history has been recorded in California, California has had an Arid climate. For the lame, that means DRY. California has always been a dry state. Yes we have mountains and sub tropical areas. Yet the vast majority of California is Arid, desert like. All one needs to confirm this is to look at the population history of the state. The reason why California did Not have a huge Native American or Mexican population before the gold rush was because it’s a desert. And desert are hard to thrive in. Only with modern dams and aqueducts could folks thrive in the state.
A great way for water companies to raise rates is to scare you to believe that the water will run out. Drought. Tell people to use less water then cry to mommy that you income , based on useage, is less so you need to charge more. Smells like a Pyramid scheme to me.
Really, water department will run out of water? That’s what the ocean and
Aquifers are for. Lying schemes to raise rates and get a bonus.
The water dept only job is to manage water if they can’t get around a drought in a desert state then they are dumber than the mother that birthed those moronic clowns.
Take that surplus money and build water desalination plants not homes for homeless. What will the homeless drink in their free home if there is no water?
Don’t believe the lies.
I’ve been telling people the same thing for years, California is mostly desert. Just take a drive south on I-5 and see for yourself how dry it is in the Central Valley. It’s so dry, they have to pump water from Lake Shasta to Bakersfield, and distribute it in the valley. There is no drought, for the last 80 years California has had above normal rainfall, and now it’s returning to normal. When Yosemite started to freeze about 10 million years ago, the glaciers were formed. 15 thousand years ago the glaciers started to melt, and 10 thousand years ago most of the glaciers were gone, and California has been warming ever since. In geological terms, 10 thousand years ago was like last week.