Water rates rising to pay for upgrades

The system provides water for 2.4 million people, including all of San Francisco and San Mateo counties and parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

SFPUC’s rate hike will be passed off to its customers in San Francisco and its wholesalers, which include The California Water Service Company, the Estero Municipal Improvement District and the Mid-Peninsula Water District among about 25 other buyers. San Francisco customers will pay for about a third of SFPUC’s Water System Improvement Program and outside cities the rest, Barry said.

Mid-Peninsula Water District officials announced the rate hike yesterday and SFPUC confirmed it.

Water rates will likely continue to rise by double-digit figures at least until 2015, said Louis Vella, president of the Mid-Peninsula Water District’s board of directors.

Mid-Peninsula provides water for all of Belmont, small pockets of San Carlos and Redwood City and some unincorporated county lands. It is also the backup provider to Foster City.

To prevent its customers from absorbing the full rate increase, the district’s general manager, Paul Regan, is being tasked with finding savings within the district, including spending less on fuel. Last year’s SFPUC rate increase was 15.8 percent but Mid-Peninsula only charged its 26,000 customers or 8,000 connections about 7.5 percent more, Vella said.

"We are actively tightening,” Regan said. None of its 18 employees face layoffs despite the district’s efforts to keep its customers’ bills lower.

The Mid-Peninsula Water District is a special district and does benefit from local property taxes, although it amounts to very little of the water district’s general fund, Vela said.

With water being in high demand, the district is promoting conservation more than ever, especially considering most water is used for outside irrigation, Vella said.

Vella also sits on the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, the umbrella group that represents 25 cities and two private utilities when it negotiates with SFPUC.

BAWSCA’s mission over the next 10 to 20 years is to ensure the San Francisco regional water system is rebuilt to withstand seismic and other hazards; make sure the agencies and their customers are treated fairly in the allocation of costs for the capital improvements; promote an aggressive water efficiency program throughout the region to extend existing supplies; and negotiate a new water agreement with San Francisco to provide a reliable supply of high quality water at a fair price.

The Crystal Springs Tunnel is the first of the SFPUC’s WSIP projects, which includes projects in seven counties and 16 ventures in San Mateo County. Altogether, the plans are expected to rebuild the antiquated pipeline, protecting against potential earthquakes and terror attacks which could theoretically cut off the water supply.

A 19-mile stretch of pipeline that moves water from the Crystal Springs Reservoir to San Francisco needs major repairs that will take two years to fix. The pipeline was built between 1900 and 1930 and is one of the oldest and most critical water mains in the regional water system.

Segments of the pipeline need to be repaired or replaced and will impact the cities of Hillsborough, Burlingame, Millbrae, San Bruno, South San Francisco, Brisbane, Daly City, San Francisco and the unincorporated areas of San Mateo County.

The New Crystal Springs Bypass Tunnel will be 4,200 feet long and hold a 96-inch steel pipe as liner. The new tunnel will provide redundancy to the existing Crystal Springs Bypass Pipeline constructed in 1969.

The replacement project is expected to take two years to complete at a construction cost of $50 million to $60 million. It is one of many WISP projects, a voter-approved measure.

The rate increase will go into effect July 1.

Bill Silverfarb can be reached by e-mail: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.