LUCERNE – Lucerne Community Water Organization (LCWO) will ask Lake County to intervene on its behalf in the current interim rate increase before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

The county Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss the request in a closed session early in August, at the request of District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing.

LCWO directors agreed on the intervention request, because “small communities like ours simply do not have the resources of time, money and people to respond on these regularly scheduled rate increases every three years,” said LCWO President Craig Bach. “We had an extremely successful intervention in the last rate increase application, in large part thanks to the work of Steve Elias, who volunteered his time and expertise as a lawyer.”

Bach noted there is a growing number of local groups seeking to overturn corporate control of water systems in the United States.

LCWO will hold its next general membership meeting on Saturday, Aug. 18, at the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, immediately following the center's breakfast. A progress report and update on the new plant under construction by California Water Service (CWS) is on the agenda.

The current rate increase before the CPUC asks for a 21.3-percent interim increase in Lucerne, to cover CWS centralized services costs, which were last reviewed in 2004. The company said costs for centralized services provided to all districts have increased, including those for water quality testing, engineering, maintenance, information systems, accounting, and conservation programming.

The full application is available on line at www.cpuc.ca.gov/proceedings/A0707001.htm .

The company said the interim request is necessary because the CPUC has changed its schedule of general rate increase applications. The next general rate increase application by CWS will be in 2009, with any approved increases to take effect in 2011.

The application covers several other CWS districts and requests other smaller increases in 2009 and 2010.

LCWO will elect new members to its five-person board of directors at a Sept. 15 meeting, also at the senior center following breakfast.

At a meeting of its board of directors last Thursday night, LCWO adopted a resolution urging public ownership of all water systems, and requested that the Lake County Board of Supervisors consider adopting a similar resolution supporting the concept of water districts without a profit motive.

That is expected to be on the Board of Supervisors agenda in mid-August. The Lake County Democratic Central Committee passed a resolution supporting not-for-profit water supplies in April of 2006 and plans to discuss the issue again at its August 2 meeting.

The LCWO resolution follows:

Resolution number 2007.1, July 19, 2007

RESOLUTION ON NOT-FOR-PROFIT OWNERSHIP OF WATER

to support and advocate for legislation requiring that water supplies and districts be owned by not-for-profit entities such as special districts, municipal water districts and non-profit corporations.

WHEREAS, water is essential to all life and is unique in the realm of products in that water consumers have no choice, but must have it or die; and

WHEREAS, recent scientific reports on global climate change indicate great uncertainty about changes in precipitation patterns and areas of drought or flood as warming continues; and

WHEREAS, thinking of water as a commodity to generate profit is contrary to our country’s values and morals; and

WHEREAS, for-profit companies, both domestic and foreign, now own 14 percent of the United States water supplies and seek to acquire more, potentially endangering the public health and safety and national security;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Lucerne Community Water Organization will do everything in its power to achieve legislation at all levels of government requiring that all water supplies and water districts be owned by not-for-profit entities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Lucerne Community Water Organization shall request that the Board of Supervisors of Lake County, California, adopt a similar resolution to advance legislation mandating not-for-profit ownership of water supplies and systems.

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