Residential Water Rates To Rise On February 15

In various discussions, Oro Valley Water Commissioner, Phil Saletta,  has assured residents that there is a satisfactory supply water for Oro Valley both in the near and long-term.

One of our readers sent us a link to an article entitled: "Colorado River Drought Forces Painful Reckoning for States." The article starts:

"The sinuous Colorado River and its slew of man-made reservoirs from the Rockies to southern Arizona are being sapped by 14 years of drought nearly unrivaled in 1,250 years."

Obviously, this is not a good thing for those states that rely on the Colorado River for even the smallest amount of water.  It is even a larger problem for the State of Arizona and communities within it because that state, along with some others, will be the first whose guaranteed take will be restricted if and when restriction becomes necessary.  This is to what they agreed when they agreed to use the water from the system.

A report ("Colorado River Water Supply Report Total System Contents") provided by the town confirms what the news report said. The Lake Mead and Lake Powell Reservoirs are less than 50% capacity. Their supply continues to dwindle. Three of the 5 smaller reservoirs are in similar shape.

Add to this the fact that California is experiencing a severe drought and that the forecast for snow pack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range shows the pack levels well below normal.  Thus, snow melt, a major source of their water, will also be low.

For us, all of this means that we need to conserve water.

At its last meeting, the Oro Valley Town Council voted to increase water rates for residential and irrigation users.  The increase provides un update to the tiered rate structure for residential users. That is the cost paid by residential customers for each tier of the water rate.   Speaking at that council meeting, Phil Saletta, Oro Valley Water Department Director stated: "The tiered [residential] rate structure is in place from a water conservation pricing perspective."  He further explained that the conservation he is seeking is reduction of water use for landscaping.

The way the structure works is that residents pay proportionately per thousand gallons for the water that they use. The rates per thousand gallons are as follows:

Tier                             Existing        After Februry 2
0-7,000                           $2.20               $2.23
7001-16,000                     2.99                 3.01
16,001-32,000                  4.03                 4.07
over 32,000                      5.38                 5.39


Commercial water rates, unlike residential water rates, are going down.  When asked by Council Member Zinkin how this decrease would encourage conservation, Saletta responded: "We all know that businesses are important to the community. They have generally a uniform level of use throughout the year...It is really their business that drives water usage.  We want to have uniform rate for commercial so that in the future they are not paying that dramatic tiered rate of their usage."

A flat water rate structure for commercial users will not encourage commercial to reduce consumption.  The conservation mechanism, according to Saletta, is the fact that businesses control their costs.

Another rate increase is proposed next year, according the the town's commissioned cost of water service study.

There has been no increase in residential rates since 2009.  The new rates are effective on February 15. Billing at the new rates starts on March 18.
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