Water rates under fire

Officials with the Triunfo Sanitation District said they will present several new rate options for recycled water when the district’s board of directors meets again on Sept. 26.

Mark Lawler, Triunfo’s district manager, said the presentation is in response to some residents who are concerned that homeowners in the Lake Sherwood area are paying less for recycled water than those in Oak Park.

The board may vote to accept one of the new rate structure options for recycled water or simply keep the current rates, according to Triunfo officials. The board will make its decision either during the September meeting or at the next board meeting in October.

Lawler said that although there is a slight discrepancy in rates for recycled water between Oak Park and Lake Sherwood residents, the Lake Sherwood Country Club makes up for the difference with the enormous volume of recycled water used on the property’s two 18-hole golf courses.

Recycled (reclaimed) water has been treated by the water company to be reused for most purposes except drinking. Typically, recycled water is used to water schools, golf courses and parks.

According to Triunfo officials, because recycled water is processed differently and comes from a different source than drinking water, rate changes for recycled water do not affect drinking water rates.

“I think (the recycled rates) need looking into, since irrigation charges are such a high part of Oak Park’s budget,” Oak Park resident Janna Orkney said. “In this time of tight budgets, we need the biggest bang for the buck that we can get. Let’s not just accept this lopsided rate system, but work to get a better deal for our community.”

Within Triunfo’s service district, which includes Oak Park, Bell Canyon, North Ranch, Westlake and Lake Sherwood, there are 101 customers who use recycled water and no recycled water clients in Bell Canyon.

Triunfo’s customers include 14 homeowners associations, two golf courses, eight parks, six schools, and two miles of landscaped medians. Recycled water is not used at individual homes.

Triunfo’s three largest users of recycled water are Lake Sherwood Country Club, Oak Park Unified School District and Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District.

How rates are calculated

For both Lake Sherwood and Oak Park, recycled water rates are determined by meter size and water quantity. Both communities have seven different meter sizes. For example, a school would typically use a smaller meter than a golf course.

Recycled water rates are primarily influenced by the time of year. Recycled rates are higher in the summer and lower in the winter.

Recycled water rates in Oak Park are split into two categories. Any customer who uses at or below 3 hundred cubic feet (HCF) per month pays about $1.54 per cubic foot, while customers using over 3 HCF of water per month pay about $1.93 per cubic foot.

Lake Sherwood residents, however, have a different pay structure for recycled water. Lake Sherwood’s rates, when compared strictly by meter rates, are lower than Oak Park residents.

Lawler said that a meter-tometer comparison does not take into account that once the country club uses over 1,770 HCF of recycled water per month, the club pays $2 per cubic foot, seven cents more than what Oak Park residents pay.

“There’s a small price reduction for the first 10 percent of the water (Lake Sherwood customers) are using,” Lawler said. “But they are paying more in total because they use such a large amount of water.”

Triunfo officials said that because the country club’s golf courses use such a high volume of water, Lake Sherwood Country Club cannot take advantage of the lower rates. Lawler pointed out that only the five housing tracts surrounding the country club actually benefit from the lower rates for recycled water because they do not exceed 1,770 hundred cubic feet of water, as do four-inch meter users like the golf course.

“When you’re talking about dollars, it’s not a significant amount of money,” Lawler said. “On an annual basis, you’re talking about $4,000 to $5,000 on a $1.4 million dollar budget. So when people say it’s being heavily subsidized, that’s not true. . .It’snot a big number.”

According to Triunfo officials, in June, the Lake Sherwood Country Club used 14,740 hundred cubic feet of water. Oak Park High School had the second highest usage at 3,436.

Why costs are different

When Triunfo began servicing Lake Sherwood in 1989, their residents complained that Triunfo’s recycled water cost more than their drinking water, Lawler said.

In response, Triunfo officials lowered the recycled water rate and instituted a three-tier pricing structure to help Lake Sherwood residents compare their recycled and drinking water rates on their monthly bills. Like in Oak Park, Lake Sherwood residents paid higher rates when they went above a certain amount of recycled water used each month.

Lawler said that Oak Park recycled water rates are also slightly higher because of debt incurred when Triunfo took over water services in the Oak Park area from the Metropolitan Water District in 1993.

Triunfo officials said it’s important for the entire district that the country club uses recycled water. If the club were to use drinking water to irrigate the golf course, it would create further strains on supplies, officials said. In addition, the district would have to find a new customer for the recycled water.

Although there are customers willing to use the recycled water, Lawler said costs associated moving the water to another customer would need to be studied and may influence rates. He said pumping the water to another customer, such as another golf course, may end up costing district customers even more money than they are paying now.

Triunfo staff will present three options to the board of directors, according to Lawler. The first option is to keep the pricing structure the same. The second option is to make the rates for recycled water throughout the district the same. The last option is to give discounts to all large-volume users of recycled water.

Lawler said although the third option would encourage the golf course to use more recycled water, which means more money for the district, any rate restructuring may create further grievances among customers who just miss the amount needed for a volume discount.