Robbins' problems with shaky water supplies and sewage treatment remain unsolved after residents of the south Sutter County community rejected sharp rate increases.

More than 60 percent of residents in Water Works District No. 1, which serves the south county town of about 400, formally protested price hikes that could have set the cost of combined water and sewer service as high as $170 a month, Daniel Peterson, county chief of water resources, told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night. Under Proposition 218, that blocks further county action on the fee-hike plan.

The failed plan illustrates a problem county officials and townspeople consider almost unsolvable — a tiny and remote utility system in disrepair, but with far too small a customer base to pay for fixes.

"We want to have better quality; we understand there's the need for a rate increase," said Estelle Lester, who moved to Robbins in 2000 and belongs to a county committee dealing with the water district. "But there's no way you can expect rural, agricultural incomes to all of a sudden go from (supporting) a $22 water bill to a $100 one."

The water district proposed the first service fee jumps in more than a decade. Under one of four options the district offered, monthly water service would have moved from $22.50 to $99.40 per residence, and sewage treatment from $32.50 to $77.80.

District residents opposed all four choices with at least a 60 percent share. Earlier, Robbins homeowners had offered a counterproposal to lift monthly water and sewer charges to $50 each.

The higher fees were meant to make up for years of underfunding that has left the district with an annual $120,000 shortfall. District No. 1 also owes Sutter County some $168,000 in advances to pay for upkeep and operations.

A full-scale overhaul — to lower levels of toxic arsenic to tightening federal standards and remove the iron and manganese that stain pipes and laundry — could incur at least a $1.5 million bill, Peterson said.

Without a revenue boost on the way, he added, an eventual sale of the Robbins water network to a private company becomes more likely — perhaps the only way out for a district chronically short of customers.

"There are economies of scale in wastewater services, but with 93 connections, Robbins doesn't enjoy any economies of scale," he said Wednesday.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune at 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com.