Tripling water rates will strain Davis residents already short on cash, residents told public officials Thursday evening.

About 40 people, many of them senior citizens, peppered city and water officials with questions at the Davis Senior Center over the $325 million Woodland-Davis Clean Water Project that would bring Sacramento River water to taps in Davis.

Money down the drain

City officials will meet with Davis residents five times in June and July to talk about rising water rates. All meetings start at 7 p.m. Find date and location information below.

June 23: Stonegate Country Club, 919 Lake Blvd.

June 30: Tandem Properties Meeting Room, 3500 Anderson Road

July 14: Redwood Park Community Building, 1111 Anderson Road

July 21: Fire Station 33, 425 Mace Blvd.

July 28: Wildhorse Golf Club Meeting Room, 2323 Rockwell Drive

Ratepayers would foot the bill under proposed rate hikes that would triple water bills. That’s going to sting everyone, numerous participants said, but particularly senior citizens trying to scrape by on a fixed income.

“That’s pretty ridiculous that it costs that much money to give us water and sewer,” said Ernie Head, a senior citizen and longtime Davis resident. “I can’t tell you how frustrated I am about this thing.”

The 16,400 Davis ratepayers will see their monthly bills more than triple over the next five years, from about $35 now to an estimated $109 in 2016, according to a city staff report released last month. Bills will increase between $10 and $20 each year between now and then.

“That’s a huge chunk of money,” said Elaine Roberts Musser, 61. “There are going to be a lot of low-come seniors who won’t be able to handle this.”

Officials told Head, Musser and others that Davis and Woodland are teaming up to get cleaner water that will meet looming wastewater standards that the state plans to enact in 2017.

If they ignore the new benchmarks, the cities would face stiff fines, and they’d still have to find a way to clean the water they discharge into the fragile delta ecosystem.

Higher fees are going to hit residents, said Greg Meyer, city of Woodland public works director, but it’s the best option for dealing with something that has to be dealt with.

The state is already fining Woodland for violating caps on selenium, which in toxic doses results in tooth decay, lack of mental alertness and hair loss, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The water board gave Woodland a five-year reprieve on fines as long as the city goes ahead with a project that brings its water into compliance.

“They ‘re proving to us that they’re serious about this,” he said. “All these limits are coming. You’re not going to be able to get away from it.”

Sue Greenwald doesn’t think so. The project is a good one, the Davis City Council member told attendees, but “it’s too expensive,” especially as residents continue to wade through the wake of a bad economy.

Three San Joaquin Valley cities — Tracy, Stockton and Manteca — battled against higher wastewater requirements by suing the state, according to a May 17 article in the Stockton Record.

Last month, Tracy got a reprieve when Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley ruled that the State Water Resources Control Board failed to consider how the higher benchmarks would strain ratepayers’ pocketbooks.

The ruling shows the state is taking a second look at its rules and is willing to relax them to give people a break, Greenwald said.

“They’re changing their own requirements,” she continued. “Whether we have to do it in the next five or 10 years — I doubt it.”

Greenwald said she’s been talking with officials “involved at the regulatory process at very high levels.” When she asked if the state water board would consider relaxing wastewater requirements, they told her yes.

The city could hold off on the project until Davis ratepayers are better able to afford it, she said, and project officials should be up front with that possibility.

“We have to be honest with people that it is an option not to do it,” she said.

Paying three times as much for water will hurt Davis and Woodland residents, Meyer said, but he disagreed with Greenwald. “The fact of the matter is there’s no cheaper way of doing it. The idea of waiting just isn’t going to work,” he said.

Cleaner water will chip off a little from their higher bills, Stephen Souza told The Enterprise earlier this month. River water doesn’t have the levels of calcium and magnesium that make Davis’ groundwater hard. Residents will enjoy better-tasting water, which means no more bottled water.

The new water won’t gum up water heaters, dishwashers and showers either, which means residents won’t have to replace them as often. Early estimates peg that savings at $15 to $20 a month. Subtract that from the $109 residents can expect to pay in 2016, and their bill comes out to $89 at best, or 154 percent higher than what the average resident pays now, he said.

— Reach Jonathan Edwards at [email protected] or (530) 747-8052.

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