Local Water District to Pass Along 5 Percent Water Rate Increase

The board of the Foothill Municipal Water District, which represents many households in La Crescenta, voted to pass along a 5 percent increase previously approved by the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), which is Southern California's largest water wholesaler.

The water increase will affect local Crescenta Valley Water District consumers starting in January of 2013.

In addition, the district's board voted to spend $2 million on new emergency standby electrical generators - the generators are used to pump water during blackouts and are essential to keeping water on during emergency events, according to the district's press release.  

The generators will be paid for partially from reserve funds and partially from revenue from customers, according to Nina Jazmadarian, the district's general manager.

The Foothill District is a public agency that represents Altadena, La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge.  It gets all of its water from the MWD while maintaining local water infrastructure.

The board of the Metropolitan Water District approved next year's 5 percent increase and another increase of 5 percent for 2014 at its meeting in April. MWD's stated purpose of the increases is to pay for updating infrastructure.

The Foothill Municipal Water District board approved the increase at its Monday meeting during its regular budget process - the board trimmed its budget by about $28,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, according to Jazmadarian.  

However, the district is projecting a $400,000 deficit in the upcoming fiscal year, according to budget records on the site.

“We continue to look at ways to avoid rate increases to customers.” said Board President and La Canada Flintridge local Richard Atwater. “The Board and staff have worked very hard to control costs."