Calaveras County Water District Adopts Modified 5-Year Rate Plan

The Calaveras County Water District (CCWD) Board of Directors approved a revised 5-year rate plan during its Public Hearing on September 13, 2023.

 Starting in October 2022, CCWD conducted a comprehensive cost-of-service analysis to ensure rates are adequate to cover the rising costs of the District’s water and wastewater systems over the next five years. After multiple public drafts and extensive budget reduction efforts, a proposed rate design and schedule were presented to the Board on July 12, 2023. At that meeting, the Board directed staff to issue the mandatory Proposition 218 notices for the proposed rates. CCWD then held three community workshops, among other outreach efforts. A special Board meeting on September 6th resulted in a reduced rate increase alternative based on deferral of certain projects from the Capital Improvement Program.

During the September 13th public hearing, the Board adopted the alternative proposal after making further reductions to the rate increases in years four and five of the rate schedule. The Board unanimously supported the rate increases in the first two years of the rate schedule, although there was disagreement about whether to limit the rate schedule to the first two years. In the end, a majority of the Board adopted a five-year rate schedule with rate increases that were lower than initially proposed. The originally proposed rate revenue increases are shown below along with the increases that were adopted by the Board.

The District heard many concerns from the public during this process about the impact the rate increases will have on CCWD customers. CCWD is committed to working with its partners to provide assistance to low-income customers and to bring in other sources of revenue to offset rates for all customers. The District is obligated to cover the costs of furnishing the critical services it provides but will make every effort to keep rates as low as possible and connect customers with any available assistance.

CCWD is a non-profit public agency that provides water or wastewater service to a majority of Calaveras County residents. It also has county-wide water resources planning jurisdiction and owns two hydro-electric projects.

See below for more details on CCWD’s new rates in comparison to other local agencies. Other agencies are facing many of the same cost increases as CCWD, so these comparisons will change as other agencies adjust rates over the next five years. For CCWD, if the maximum allowable rate increases in the adopted schedule are implemented in each of the five years, the daily cost of the water base rate plus 187 gallons per day will increase from $2.30 per day currently to $4.04 per day in 2028. For wastewater, the daily cost for a single-family residence could increase from $3.51 per day currently to $5.47 in 2028. The bi-monthly bill amounts are shown below.

For more information, go to ccwd.org or contact us at customerservice@ccwd.org.