Santa margarita water district pay bill12/5/2023 ![]() The service area currently operates on a tiered system with a base rate of $61.51 per two-month billing cycle. The proposal was this: A base rate of $44.64 per two-month billing cycle, plus $4.55 per unit of water used. “This was new to all of us-a water rate increase? What’s this?” she said. When the increase was put before the board earlier this summer, nobody really knew how to make sense of it, Linda said. Most of the members have only served for the last six months, getting a crash course in water rates, use, and politics in the process. The couple added to that knowledge this year by jumping onto the CSA 23 advisory board. They know about the fight against tying CSA 23 into the state water pipeline for emergency water purposes, and they are well aware of a recent grant paying to hook residents up to Atascadero Mutual Water Company in case the wells run dry. They know about the $2 million loan residents need to pay the USDA for repairing water pipelines and installing a much-needed newer, bigger water tank in 2009. FUNDS IN TROUBLE: In four out of the last five years, County Service Area 23 has operated a deficit.DATA FROM SLO COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT.Although in the early ’90s, it came pretty close. The Scotts said the town has never run out of water. Every year, that water seeps into the shallow aquifer beneath town, filling it quickly for Margarita residents to use. Every year, runoff rushes by, brown and gurgling. A very dry Santa Margarita Creek bed butts up against a retaining wall on the backside of their property. Linda said it’s gray bath water that does the trick.Īs 30-year residents, the couple knows Santa Margarita, its quirks, and its water situation. This year, the Scotts slashed that use by almost 50 percent and got rid of their ponds. That’s $350 to $400 every two months into the service area’s budget. They readily admit it, too.ĭuring the summers, they pump about 80 units (1 unit equals 100 cubic-feet) of water every two months onto green lawns, flower-filled beds, and through ponds and fountains. Linda and Warren Scott have the kind of yard that helps line CSA 23’s bank account. And the reserves stashed away in lush years, when people watered more and paid higher bills, are pretty much gone. The drought pretty much drowned that plan in what little water is left. “We were kind of hoping to limp along until we paid off that loan, … when we’d have kind of a relief on our expenses, but it didn’t happen that way,” he said. Clemens added that the county was trying to hold out until 2018, which is when the CSA will finish paying off a state loan that enabled the district to drill a second water well. So, in addition to making up a revenue shortfall, the water district’s customers have a new loan to pay off. “If we didn’t borrow that money, we would probably run out of cash at some point this year,” said Will Clemens, who takes care of finances for the Public Works Department. 20, the SLO County Board of Supervisors approved a $60,000 loan from the county’s general fund to make up for a projected revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year. In 2014-2015, the most recent fiscal year, the CSA brought in approximately $296,000, or about $66,000 less than was needed to pay the bills. It hasn’t been achieving that goal.Īccording to county staff reports, in four out of the last five fiscal years, Santa Margarita CSA 23’s water fund operated in the red. ![]() With fixed costs to serve water to customers-staff, pipes, tanks, pumps, wells-the CSA is charged with billing just enough to cover costs. The math is simple: CSA 23 (County Service Area 23) is spending more than it’s bringing in. The increase that now faces off against potentially disgruntled landowners armed with protest slips is slightly greater than the last one. It was a first for the county, but the SLO County Board of Supervisors approved a new proposal on Oct. The town of fewer than 2,000 people pulled together to use 32 percent less water than the year before and to successfully block a county-imposed water rate increase in September. But while most of the state accepted inevitably drier yards with thinner wallets, Santa Margarita fought it. Of course, the same is true for homeowners across California.
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