The Widder Curry: The Water Bill Has Hit the Fan

It seems to me that I wrote a similar article about the high water rates a year or so ago.  I know how upset I was with the raise in the water rates after it was announced that the drought was over.  I know that many of us either appeared at the City Council meeting or sent letters protesting the rate increase, and, as per usual, we were “overruled” and the rates went into effect.

At that time I was “upset” about the increase.  Now I am pissed. And it isn’t just me.  I have the names of 286 residents in the Pt. Loma area that are also upset with the water bills we all received this week. And before I tell you the breakdown of a poll initiated by one of our neighbors – Mi Do – of the Fleetridge area, let me tell you why I am so pissed.

I am on a fixed income.  My social security take home is about $1300 a month! Yes. That is not a typo.  And yes, I was an educator and should have a pension, but when I was transferred to the Job Corps system in Maine, I took out the money to purchase a house there. And after we sold the house, the interest that the retirement system wanted on the amount of money I borrowed was prohibitive.

Thank goodness I had also worked under the social security system at both Job Corps, San Diego State University, and other jobs throughout my career, because I have no income from my husband. (He retired as a school superintendent but his yearly salary was $30,000! a year.  When he retired we had the opportunity to take less money each money and stretch it out so that I would have some income, or take a larger monthly amount.  We chose the larger amount, and you can imagine how much (little) income there was on $30,000.

The bill I just received was for $392.24 – one quarter of what my monthly income is.  Yes, I have students living with me, but we restrict ourselves to one 5 minute shower a day; I run the dishwasher every 5 days; my plants and trees are watered for 5 minutes twice a week for 5 minutes at each of the 7 stations.  I put water in the pool once a month, and there is not much evaporation during that month.  We use the washing machine once a week – maybe 3-4 loads, maximum.  I save water from the shower; I don’t water the side yards; and I still have a bill for almost $400!  Why?

As soon as I received my bill I called the Water Department to ask them to come out and do a water audit.  I called at 2:30pm Friday afternoon.  After going through all the rigamarole of putting in my account number, and what I wanted to do, I got a recording telling me that I could either leave my number and not lose my place in line, or I could hold because there was only a one minute delay.  So I held, and held, and held.  And still I kept getting the “one minute” delay comment.  I hung up; called back and got the same recording. At 3:30pm I left my phone number and waited for the call back. I am still waiting for the call back.

And then I saw the poll from Mi Do.  “What is your last San Diego Water Bill”?  Without even reading further, I figured that I was not the only one getting bent out of shape over the bill.  At this writing, there have been 286 responses, and I find the results very enlightening:

• 63% of the residents had a bill of over $200
• 20% of the residents had a bill of between $150-200
• 16% of the residents had a bill of between $100-150
• 2% of the residents had a bill of under $100.

Almost to a household people said that they were conserving, and the more they conserve the higher the water bill.  One person said that for a household of 3, with no grass, only rock, and environmentally aware,  her bill topped $700!  A friend of mine was gone from October 11-November 11th.  No one lived in his house for that period of time. His water bill was $116.17.

NSeveral people are trying to work with Tom, the trouble shooter, on NBC News to figure out why our bills are so high.  The drought is over. The drought we are feeling now is in our own pocket.  I have never, after living in this house since 1968, EVER had a water bill this high.

I will be calling Turko on Monday to talk to him about this also. At the rate this is going, I may have to stop taking some of my medicines in order to compensate for higher rates on water.

I want to know how they figured out the difference between Tier 1, 2 and 3; I want to know if I saved so much water from the shower why the sewer base fee ($35.77) is so much more ($73.83).  Much of the water is not even going down the sewer.  It sure seems to me that $168.33 for use of the sewer and storm drain is a lot of money.

I think that someone needs to look into where all that money is going. We are not the only neighborhood in San Diego.  There has to be a surplus of money – as there should be a surplus of water – hidden somewhere.  We keep hearing the drought is over and people have conserved so much that rates had to change to keep up with expenses.  Well, if conserving is raising my rates, you can better believe my days of conservation are over.  What about you folks?