Shareholders Discussing Crestview Mutual Water Co.
Well #4, which suffered an “electro–mechanical problem” with the pump on January 30, is back online as of April 24. We asked what caused the failure and whether there would be a financial impact but were asked to wait for the General Manager’s report to the Board. Although the well Continue reading Well #4 restored to service.
An action to decide the relative entitlements of all persons pumping from our groundwater basin was started in 2018. On November 17 the judge filed a “Final Statement of Decision re: Phase 2” substantially adopting the Settlement Agreement entered into by Crestview and others constituting 87% of the owners of Continue reading Judge rules in favor of Crestview and other Settling Parties in Phase 2 of the groundwater basin adjudication.
Tier 1 will increase from 4,000 gallons per share per month to 8,000. This will lower our monthly bills because we will get more at the Tier 1 rate of $4.00 per 1,000 gallons and less at the Tier 2 rate of $8.10 and the Tier 3 rate of $15.50. Continue reading The board lowered our water rates, risking more difficulty meeting conservation goals next year.
We are just barely on pace to achieve our drought response goal of not importing any water before September 30. Should we lower rates and risk falling short of this goal, or keep rates high to constrain demand? The board will consider that question on August 11. If it were Continue reading Board to decide whether to lower our rates or keep them high to avoid even higher rates and severe use restrictions.
In recent years, we have been subject to “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” and to huge long-lasting local wildfires. Neither of Crestview’s wells can pump when the power is off. In a summer power outage, we could be totally out of water in about two days—without fire protection, bathing, or toilet Continue reading How many emergency generators does Crestview need?
In recent years, local groundwater has supplied 70-80% of Crestview demand, and the rest was imported. This year, because of the severe drought, we need to rely solely on groundwater and import nothing. We can achieve this if–averaged across users and months–we use only water in Tiers 1 and 2. Continue reading Use your water bill to determine your positive or negative contribution to our drought solution.
Our board must decide April 28 how to respond to the biggest water shortage emergency that has occurred in the 50-year history of the State Water Project. There is regulatory pressure to restrict residential landscape watering to one day per week, or less. Mandatory water conservation measures are being imposed Continue reading The Crestview board will decide April 28 whether our lawns live or die. You should Zoom in.
On April 26 the Metropolitan Water District may limit landscape watering to once per week. That would cut Crestview consumption 57%, and our rates would go up. A recent letter from Crestview announced the draconian MWD rules would not apply to us if we reduce our consumption by just 20% Continue reading Mandatory conservation measures threatened by suppliers of imported water provide more justification for not selling the company, for getting out of the Well #8 contract, and for a new backup well.
Crestview normally gets 25% of its supply from northern California through The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (“MWD”), which supplies Calleguas Municipal Water District, which supplies Crestview. Because of the drought, MWD is expected to adopt April 11-12 significant price increases, with credits for mandatory conservation measures. Calleguas will Continue reading Crestview may restrict water use and significantly raise rates by May 1.
On March 28, Governor Newsom issued an executive order directing the Department of Water Resources to consider adopting by May 25, 2022 regulations that would ban “irrigation of non-functional turf in commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors except as may be required to ensure the health of trees and other perennial Continue reading The Governor’s recent order spares residential lawns from mandatory irrigation cutbacks, but there may still be pain.