A protest hearing is taking place Tuesday on the South San Joaquin Irrigation District’s plan to raise irrigation rates for the first time in 23 years.
Over the next five years, if the rates are adopted, they could go in incremental annual steps from the current:
*$24 flat per acre rate to $70.
*$3 for the volumetric Tier I rate of less than 48 inches per acre feet to $11.75.
*$10 for the volumetric Tier 2 rate of more than 48 inches per acre feet to $20.
*$50 minimum charge to $70.
*$31.47 blended charge per acre to $98.40.
In order for ratepayers to block the rate hike, the board would need to receive valid written protests from 1,629 of the 3,257 parcel owners eligible to vote in the protest hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the district office, 11011 East Highway 120, Manteca.
Costs to provide irrigation service continue to rise due to regulatory and inflationary pressures in addition to the repair, rehabilitation, and replacement of irrigation infrastructure, some of which was built over 100 years ago.
Cost categories such as administrative, payroll, operations, construction materials, equipment and vehicles, and capital improvements are included in the District’s cost of service analysis.
The actual cost of providing irrigation service far exceeds the revenue generated from irrigation rates billed to and received from customers.
The SSJID Board of Directors has adopted a policy that supplements irrigation rate revenue with irrigation non-rate revenue such as its share of electricity sales from the tri-Dam Project and general-purpose revenues to cover the full cost of providing irrigation service.
In the last few years, SSJID has had to use irrigation non-rate revenues, general purposes revenues, and money from its reserves, to cover the cost of providing irrigation service. The current business model has been deemed unsustainable.
In addition to operations and maintenance costs, the District has identified in its adopted Water Master Plan an additional $191 million in capital improvement needed to ensure the water supply reliability for all District customers, improve the level of service for irrigation customers, and to repair, rehabilitate and replace aging District infrastructure.
