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California Told to “Manage Drought With One Hand Behind Your Back!”
Author(s) -
LaFrance David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.2015.tb11143.x
Subject(s) - water utility , water consumption , equity (law) , consumption (sociology) , block (permutation group theory) , engineering , water supply , political science , water resource management , law , environmental science , sociology , mathematics , social science , environmental engineering , geometry
Setting water rates is tricky business, and as a result there is a lot of focus ‐ including legal focus ‐ on it. A recent court decision on water rates in California has, for good reason, captured the attention of the nation. For the past few years, a court case in California (Capistrano Taxpayers Ass'n v. City of San Juan Capistrano) has seemingly raised questions about the level of precision needed to properly set California's water rates ‐ especially inclining block rates (which are often also referred to as tiered rates or increasing block rates). It was not that long ago, before meters were the norm, that the precision of water rates relied on factors such as the number of water fixtures in the home, students in the school, or bar stools at the tavern. Today there are myriad more‐accurate designs that use a customer's actual consumption as the basis to assess rate. These metered designs also improve fairness and equity and simultaneously support utility, public, and environmental policies. The California rate case, however, takes the required level of precision to a new level.