When many of us arrived in Lucerne, our only concern about water was having it come out of the tap when we turned it on. This attitude was shattered for us last August when California Water Service first proposed a monumental, budget-breaking, 246-percent water rate hike.
For many of us, the proposed rate hike would have represented a significant financial burden, and so Lucerne Community Water Organization was born early in September 2005, to investigate how we could protect ourselves and our community.
With the capable assistance of attorney Steve Elias and Catherine Elias-Jermany, we learned how to oppose these astronomical rates, as intervenors before the California Public Utilities Commission. Now the PUC decision is in, and the approved rate hike, 65 percent for most households, is considerably less than originally proposed.
Much of the past year has been a lonely struggle, but we”ve become aware that our situation is not unique.
We”ve made contact and formed alliances with other water districts controlled by corporate interests, and have received moral support and advice from such varied groups as the Sierra Club, Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton, Alliance for Democracy, Food and Water Watch, Public Citizen, FeltonFLOW and the Mark West Community Service District in Sonoma County. We also want to thank Upper Lake resident Denise Rushing for her early-on and continuing support and advice.
The greatest difficulty in opposing Cal Water”s massive rate increase request is that a number of the upper level of managers at the corporation have worked for the Public Utilities Commission in the past. Bill Koehler, who manages the Lucerne system and others in Cal Water”s Redwood Valley district, confirmed this for us at a public information meeting on Aug. 8. Utility companies and the commission that regulates them have a too-cozy relationship.
For instance, Peter C. Nelson is president and chief executive officer of California Water Service Group and its subsidiaries. Before joining California Water Service Group in 1996, he was vice president, division operations (1994-1995) and region vice president (1989-1994) of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Michael R. Peevey, president of the CPUC, was president of NewEnergy Inc., then the nation”s largest energy service provider, from 1995 until 2000. Before that, he was president of Edison International and Southern California Edison Company from August 1990, through March 1993, and a senior executive there beginning in 1984.
These insiders know the complex procedures and treat rate hikes like a game; their customers do not.
Lucerne is an unincorporated area with approximately 3,000 residents who, until quite recently, have felt fairly abandoned by their local government.
The recent agreement by the Board of Supervisors to explore the feasibility of a publicly and locally owned and controlled water company is more than welcome. LucerneFLOW (Friends of Locally Owned Water) looks forward to working with the county in forming a Community Service District to acquire and run the water system.
Quite frankly, it”s been a little lonely here on the Northshore.
Editor”s note: Craig Bach is president of Lucerne Community Water Organization.
