About the water bill...

Wow, I can't believe it.

I actually understand everything on the water bill from Cal-Am. It only took me a couple of weeks, and some fun time on the phone with Cal-Am Customer Service, but I've got it.

I've read estimates that the surcharges to be added while the desalination plant gets built could increase the water bills by up to 60%. This is on top of what we're already paying for past failures and messes. So to understand exactly what it is we're already paying for, I went through the entire water bill line-by-line, compared it to the posted rate schedules, pored over related CPUC decisions, and pestered some poor young man at Cal-Am Customer Service who had the misfortune to answer my call (it's not his fault, he was very nice, but Cal-Am doesn't train staff to answer these questions). Now know what all the numbers are and how they got there. I'm a bit fuzzy on the rationales for some of them--the real reason for them is sometimes a bit obscured by the way they're listed on the rate schedule--but I've got the jist of it.

For example, let's say Cal-Am wants to do some test project. They apply to the CPUC for permission to do it, and the track the costs in a "memorandum account". CPUC issues a ruling that includes authorization to create a memorandum account and report back later. Let's then say everything goes well, the project will proceed, and Cal-Am now wants to recover the money they're spent so far from ratepayers. CPUC gives them permission (of course) to move the total from the memorandum account to a "general account" or "balancing account" and add a surcharge to the water bills.  So on the rate schedule, it shows up as some mumbo-jumbo thing like the memorandum account balancing surcharge authorized by decision D00-00-00. So unless you go and read decision D00-00-00, you still don't know what it is.  And even if you do read the decision, it probably includes multiple issues, and references previous decisions and other documents that aren't available online. Getting to the bottom of it can be an exercise in futility.

I've added a new tab to this site -- Water Rates. On the Water Rates page I've attempted to explain all of the charges and fees that appear on the Cal-Am water bill in Monterey County. I used my own water bill as a reference, so some of the information is specific to city of Monterey residents. But if you're crazy enough to try to decipher your own bill, hopefully this information will help.

While I was at it, I also added some information about another water expense we're paying -- the Water Supply Charge that is added to property tax bills.

Have fun.