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OMWD Board Will Hold Public Hearing on October 16 on Proposed Water Charges That Would Impact the Average Residential Customer Bill by Less Than Five Percent
Olivenhain Municipal Water District will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. on October 16 to receive comments on proposed water charges. The proposed charges would increase a residential customer’s bill with average usage by less than five percent, beginning January 1, 2025.
OMWD buys all of its drinking water supply from its wholesaler, San Diego County Water Authority. Buying wholesale water makes up approximately 60 percent of OMWD’s operating costs. Effective January 1, 2025, SDCWA will increase the price OMWD pays for water by 14 percent.
The increase under consideration at OMWD is necessary to keep pace with the dramatic increases in SDCWA’s water costs. To reduce the impact of SDCWA’s increases to OMWD customers, OMWD has frozen hiring for vacant positions, delayed previously planned positions, and reprioritized capital projects.
“Our board unanimously voted to increase our rate reimbursement credit to customers, which helped keep the impact to the average residential customer’s bill to less than five percent,” said OMWD Board President Christy Guerin. “It also helps keep the cost of OMWD water at about a penny per gallon for all ratepayers.”
OMWD’s rate reimbursement credit was established in 2021 to help offset increases in wholesale water costs. This program uses money refunded from lawsuits filed by SDCWA that successfully challenged the legality of certain rates and charges by its wholesaler Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
OMWD is a not-for-profit agency that only charges for the actual cost of providing water services. Water rates and charges are designed to fund operations, maintenance, and infrastructure needs to allow OMWD to continue providing customers with safe, reliable water supplies.
OMWD mailed a public hearing notice to all water customers and landowners in OMWD’s service area to comply with California’s Proposition 218. A copy of the 2024 Water Rate Study is available at www.olivenhain.com/rates. The website also features a water bill estimator, where customers can see the impact based on their own usage.
