LUCERNE — Ratepayers plan to protest a new surcharge that would appear on their water bills if a state loan is approved to cover the cost of improvements to the community”s water system.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is sponsoring an upcoming meeting regarding the surcharge. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center. Representatives from California Water Service Company (Cal Water) ? which owns Lucerne”s water system ? the CPUC and the California Department of Health are expected to attend.
Cal Water spokesman Thomas Smegal said the $17.34 monthly surcharge is not a rate increase. He said the money will repay a zero-interest, 30-year state revolving fund loan.
“It will be a surcharge on customers” bills, and that will be going directly to the state of California to repay the loan on the plant. It is not an increase on the rates to Cal Water,” Smegal said.
To Charles Behne, another surcharge would virtually double his bill. He and Cal Water”s other roughly 1,300 customers are billed every other month, bringing the monthly surcharge to $34.68 for one billing cycle.
“We already pay in surcharges about $80 before we use a drop of water,” Behne said.
Behne is part of the Lucerne Community Water Organization. He said the water interest group is circulating a petition to fight the surcharge.
Behne said the group met Thursday night to prepare a final list of questions for Wednesday”s meeting. The group plans to ask why a $3.1 million estimate for the new water treatment plant was raised to $7.5 million, and whether more a than $2.5 million “windfall to its (Cal Water”s) shareholders” can be used to pay for the plant.
A November 2007 CPUC report calls Cal Water”s $2.5 million reporting discrepancy a windfall. The report says the amount of customers” rates authorized for payroll was 20.33 percent higher than actual payroll expenses in 2006.
Fred Curry, program manager for the CPUC”s water division, said the state revolving fund loan, if the CPUC approves it, will repay money Cal Water fronted to build the new water treatment plant.
The state health department put Lucerne”s water system under a moratorium in September 2006 until the new treatment plant could be built, and oversaw construction. Curry said the plant is expected to go online in May or June.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
