Big hike in works for water and sewer in Robbins

Doug Gault isn’t looking forward to Monday.

That’s when Sutter County’s Public Works director will ask the Board of Supervisors to OK big increases in sewer and water rates in Robbins.

The proposals: a near-tripling of water rates and a more than 50 percent increase in sewer rates.

“There’s not a lot of other things we can do,” Gault said. “We just don’t have a lot of options.”

The water rate in Sutter County Waterworks District No. 1, which serves the small community of about 400 near the Yolo County line, last changed in 1992.

It’s $22.50 per month for residential customers and would go to $60.95 under the proposed change. Sewer rates, last set in 1997 at $32.50 per month, would jump to $49.80.

“This is the first step to getting the fund healthy,” Gault said.

That lack of rate adjustments for the last decade is a cause for the large proposed increase, Gault said.

“What has happened over the years is the district spent out what funds they had instead of looking at rate increases each year and basically now have spent all the reserves and in fact have had to borrow some money from the (county) general fund,” he said.

The district serves 82 residences, 16 businesses, a trailer park (with 25 residences) and a school.

Under Proposition 218, a rate increase can’t go through if a majority of ratepayers protest. Gault said some written protests have come in and a petition was circulated opposing the water rate increase.

Gault said the petition, if signatures match, would represent more than 50 percent of the district’s 97 accounts. The board will be considering the petition during the meeting.

“It’s not necessarily in the format prescribed by Prop 218, but the board will determine whether they consider that to be a majority protest as defined by Prop 218,” he said. “But they’ll be considering it regardless, obviously, when there’s a concern by that many customers, they have to take that into account.”

During the 2006-07 fiscal year, the district’s operations cost $130,546. But income from fee payments was $78,135. Estimates for the remainder of the current fiscal year would have revenues fall more than $100,000 short of expenses.

The district has an outstanding loan of $62,783 from the general fund, plus an operating deficit of $82,500. As part of approving the rate increase, the district will take out a new $150,000 loan from the general fund to pay off the current outstanding balances.

“We have to pay that back as well as cover the current operation and maintenance costs,” Gault said.

The new loan will be paid back to the general fund over 30 years, he said.

The proposed rates aren’t actually much different or are still much lower than rates in other communities, Gault pointed out. Yuba City residents pay $55 a month for their water. Residents of the Gold Village subdivision in Yuba County, which has had troubles with its sewer system, pay $90 a month for that service.

But more rate increases are possible and likely in the future. The current rate increase proposal will only cover the district’s operating expenses and a filtration media replacement, which removes minerals such as iron and manganese. Not being dealt with are possible treatment needs to meet stricter arsenic level standards, line replacement, and rebuilding a reserve fund for the district.

Gault said in the future, the county will look to close the time gap on rate increase to prevent such significant cost jumps.

“In reality, unless you have a tremendously huge reserve, you should be looking at them every year so you don’t have a dramatic increase any particular year,” he said.

Alternatives to a rate increase aren’t of much benefit to the residents, he said. Grants, even if available, are usually for capital improvements, not the operation costs the district is coming up short on.

Privatizing the district may not cause a rate increase, but the county feels it won’t cause a decrease either. And another option - discontinuing water and sewer services in Robbins altogether - isn’t realistic.

“We couldn’t find any (alternative) where it would make sense, where we could actually make it happen and still provide the service,” Gault said.

Gault said that while the new rates would be similar to rates paid currently in other local communities, he feels for the residents of Robbins.

“Of course I sympathize with the fact that its a dramatic increase, particularly on water,” he said. “Some people are going to have to look at how they budget for that.”

Appeal-Democrat reporter Robert LaHue can be reached at 749-4713. You may e-mail him at rlahue@appealdemocrat.com