CWA makes SAWR permanent

The San Diego County Water Authority has a program called the transitional special agricultural water rate, and the SDCWA will be transitioning the rate into a permanent program.

A unanimous CWA board vote Nov. 21 approved making the special agricultural water rate permanent. An annual review of the special agricultural water rate will be conducted in conjunction with other rates and charges, and the cost of service process to determine special agricultural water rate rates is expected to be completed in spring 2020.

“I just think it’s a win for agriculture in San Diego,” Frank Hilliker said, who chairs the CWA’s administrative and finance committee and also chairs the CWA’s fiscal sustainability task force. Hilliker is on the board of the Lakeside Water District and is that district’s representative on the CWA board.

In 1994, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California implemented the interim agricultural water program which provided surplus supplies to agricultural customers at a discounted rate with the condition of cutbacks in a drought of up to 30% before implementing any mandatory reductions to municipal and industrial customers. An agricultural user could choose to pay municipal and industrial rates and not be subject to the cutbacks.

In October 2008, the MWD board voted to phase out the interim agricultural water rate over a four-year period. In December 2008 the CWA board created the transitional agricultural water rate program for farmers who chose to opt out of the interim agricultural water rate. Transitional special agricultural water rate customers are not eligible to receive certain water from CWA augmented supply programs.

The initial transitional special agricultural water rate was for a two-year period although in March 2010 the CWA board voted to extend the program to the end of 2012, have a revised program for 2013 through 2015, and review that program before the beginning of 2016. In April 2012 the CWA board voted to extend the transitional special agricultural water rate until the end of 2014.

In May 2013, the CWA convened the fiscal sustainability task force whose purpose was to provide a revised rate structure intended to avoid a situation where conservation results in increased water rates due to reduced revenue from water purchases by member agencies.

The task force's report was released to member agencies in January 2014 for their input and was first brought to the CWA board as an information item in February 2014. The board expressed a preference to defer action until outstanding issues could be addressed.

The desire to include the transitional special agricultural water rate as part of the changes resulting from the task force recommendations led to a one-year extension of that program in June 2014 when the CWA’s 2014-2015 budget was approved. In March 2015, the CWA board approved several of the task force’s recommendations and extended the transitional special agricultural water rate until the end of 2020.

The fiscal sustainability task force was reconvened in July 2019 and has been meeting twice each month. Valley Center Municipal Water District general manager is the vice-chair of the task force which also includes Carlos Lugo of the Helix Water District, Kimberly Thorner of the Olivenhain Water District, Mark Watton of the Otay Water District, Doug Wilson of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, City of San Diego representatives Chris Cate and Matt Vespi and Mike Hogan of the Santa Fe Irrigation District.

Although the task force is addressing other subjects, the transitional special agricultural water rate was the focus of multiple meetings. The Oct. 25 task force meeting included a presentation from the CWA’s cost of service consultant.

The task force recommended that the transitional special agricultural water rate be made permanent, and the Administrative and Finance Committee also made such a recommendation before the full board vote.

“It’s no longer transitional, and it’s going to be opened up for new farmers,” Hilliker said. “There was a great response. Everybody understands the importance of agriculture in San Diego. I’m just really proud of the board members of the Water Authority and the hard work that staff put in getting it done.”

The Nov. 21 CWA board approval is for the framework only; the specific rates will be part of the budget process. Special agricultural water rate customers will pay the MWD Tier 1 untreated supply rate, the melded treatment rate, the transportation rate, the customer service charge which is intended to recover costs which support the operations of the CWA and the infrastructure access charge which is used for CWA-fixed expenditures incurred even when water use is reduced and is per meter equivalent rather than based on usage volume.

Special agricultural water rate customers will not pay the melded supply rate which reflects water purchased from the Imperial Irrigation District under the Quantification Settlement Agreement and water produced by the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant as well as water delivered from MWD, the storage charge which recovers costs related to emergency storage programs, the supply reliability charge, or other charges related to regional conveyance.

“Agriculture represents a big part of the community of Fallbrook, so anything that can be done to continue to support them we support,” Jack Bebee, general manager of Fallbrook Public Utility District, said, who is FPUD’s representative on the CWA board.

“That’s an excellent bit of progress for all our agricultural users,” Tom Kennedy, general manager of Rainbow Municipal Water District, said, who is the Rainbow representative on the CWA board. “It’s an excellent step forward.”

The new program will take effect Jan. 1, 2021. During the first half of 2020, the CWA will develop and finalize new program guidelines, and new sign-ups will be initiated during the second half of 2020.