The Davis City Council has approved a water rate schedule that means if water users in Davis conserve above expectation, the city will not receive the revenues that it will need to pay the multimillion-dollar loan principal, the interest and operational costs of the system.

The city has a problem — if less water is used, less revenue is received unless charges are increased to a level to cover the costs. The missing piece used by agriculture is an assessment based on the size of the parcel that receives the water; i.e., if costs are $500,000 per year and there are 100,000 acres to receive water, then each acre is assessed $5 (this is over-simplified, but you get the picture).

In Davis, it could be based on acreage and lots would be sized as a percent of an acre. The assessment revenue would be precise revenue. Agricultural users pay a base rate according to acreage, whereas Davis uses the size of delivery pipe. When owners of large parcels and homeowner associations stated that they would put in their own wells and therefore not need to use the city of Davis water, the assessment idea was dropped. The bluff worked.

For what may become a reality, the city is planning a surcharge, a huge increase in water rates to cover the lost revenue from conservation. In essence, the city is saying don’t conserve, we need the money, but on the other hand, the city is saying we are mandated to conserve and will “soak” the users to have the revenue.
Vernette Marsh
Davis

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