Water rates will go up, heavy users to pay most

The water company that serves most of Thousand Oaks west of Moorpark Road is changing to what the company is calling "conservation rates" for residential customers.

On Tuesday evening and last night officials from California American Water met with concerned customers to answer questions about a tiered-rate-system that will begin in January for 20,000 accounts.

Efforts to motivate customers to voluntarily conserve water by at least 10 percent in 2007 failed, with only a 3 percent decline in usage, said Todd Brown, general manager.

Now the water company has gotten permission from its governing board, the California Public Utilities Commission, to charge higher rates to consumers who use more water as an incentive to use less.

Customer Nick Fotheringham, a T.O. resident, remembers what happened to those who voluntarily conserved water 10 years ago before mandatory limits were imposed. He offered a reason why customers might be reluctant to use less water.

"Ten years ago I participated in voluntary rationing while my neighbor did not. Then, when the mandatory rationing came, they based it on our previous water usage and my neighbor, who had been using lots of water all along, was allotted 10 times more water than I was because I had cut back. That's a disincentive," Fotheringham said.

Fernando Reynos attended the meeting with his children, Nicholas, 5, and Natalia, 4, in hopes of learning how he could more effectively conserve water, he said.

The rate changes shouldn't have caught residents by surprise, according to Brown. "The government has declared a drought in California, and the one thing we know for certain is the price of water is going to go up," Brown said.

The tiered-rate is considered prudent and necessary to limit water usage since Thousand Oaks, like most of Southern California, relies almost exclusively on costly water that's imported from the north.

"Very little water is locally captured and utilized," Brown said.

Most of the water used—60 to 70 percent—goes to outdoor landscaping, he said.

"There's still a lot that can be done painlessly to lower water usage," Brown said.

Customers can, for example, plant drought-friendly landscapes and stop over-irrigating their lawns, he said.

The company offers free individual audits in which water company representatives visit homes and conduct an inspection before offering specific tips on how to save water.

Their suggestions may include rebate offers on water-saving, weather-based sprinkler systems, free lowflow shower heads, instructions on how to more wisely irrigate yards or information on improved laundry machines that use less water.

Broken sprinkler heads are a common culprit, an expert said, because sprinklers often activate in the middle of the night when nobody can observe wasteful water spouts.

The tieredsystem should motivate residents to examine sprinkler heads and other water-wasting problems since those who use more water will pay higher rates. The fixed monthly meter charge will go down about half the current rate, so the bill will more accurately reflect the actual water usage.

"You should notice on your February bill," Brown said.

Those who used 15 units or less will now pay about $2.26 per unit, 15 to 26 units will pay $2.59 per unit and more than 26 units will pay $2.82 per unit. The meter charge for a one-inch meter goes down from $25.13 a month to $12.56 a month.

For more information, call California American Water at (805) 498-1266 or go to www.californiaamwater.com.