Water rates on the rise throughout the Coachella Valley
People up and down on California are using less water, and still their water bills may be going up, including right here in the Coachella Valley.
UC Riverside’s Palm Desert campus hosted a forum on regional water rates where speakers shared why water bills are getting higher, despite cutting water use.
Rates will rise specifically in the valley in order to alter water infrastructure and reduce the amount of chromium 6 in the water, as required by California regulations. The nationwide standard of chromium 6 is 100 ppb, but California requires no more than 10 ppb in statewide water by 2020.
“The state is saying use less, which is the same as saying reduce your revenue, and by the way here’s some new regulation that’s going to cost you millions to implement. That’s a double hit on a community like ours and they can’t handle that,” said John Soulliere, who is the conservation and public affairs officer for the Mission Springs Water District, which caters primarily to Desert Hot Springs residents.
Coachella Valley Water District’s General Manager, Jim Barrett says that while we’re still in a drought, limits will have to be met and rate increases made.
Water districts throughout the state have written letters to the State Water Resources Control Board in an effort to have restrictions relaxed and possibly eliminated. Many hope those restrictions can be assigned based on region, in order to reduce pressure on areas of lower income or places that have shown significant progress in their water conservation.
