THE ARTICLE HAS BEEN CORRECTED REGARDING A REFERENCE AT THE MEETING TO A 1996 RATE INCREASE.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – In the last of three informational meetings on a proposed rate hike for Southeast Regional Wastewater Collection System customers, Lake County Special Districts officials encountered their most spirited and pointed rounds of questions over the reasons for asking the community to pay higher fees.
The hour-and-a-half-long Monday evening meeting, held at the Highlands Senior Center in Clearlake, drew approximately 21 community members, who came to hear Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger and his financial officer, Jan Coppinger, explain the rate increase proposal – which totals nearly 40 percent – and the justifications for it.
The overall sentiment from community members, expressed by one man, was that 40 percent is just too much, especially in the current economy.
During the meeting Dellinger said many people were criticizing the plan because they believed Special Districts was trying to get the infrastructure in place for the city of Clearlake's Lowe's shopping center plan and the Provinsalia housing development.
Noting that he isn't responsible for approving development plans, Dellinger said, “I'm getting fines and notices of violation and cleanup and abatement orders from state regulatory agencies. That's what I'm focused on.”
The county is proposing a longterm fix to the system that will cost just under $5.5 million, and includes a new pump station and a new four-mile pipeline between the city's pump station four, located along Highway 53, and down to the treatment plant on Pond Road, as Lake County News has reported.
Of that overall amount, $1.4 million would come from county reserves and $4 million from bonds, Dellinger said Monday.
Rates would rise by $11.13 per month per household to a base charge of $26.08, according to the proposed rate increase ordinance. Low-strength commercial – professional offices, banks and retailers – would see base monthly charges of $39.12; daycares and day schools without cafeterias or showers, which also would fall under that designation, would pay an additional $1.05 per student per month.
Medium-strength commercial – service stations, senior centers, convalescent homes, laundromats, theaters, and hotels and motels without dining facilities – would have a base fee of $91.28 per month, with an additional monthly charge of $16 per bed for care homes, $12.04 per hotel/motel room with a kitchen or $5.22 for rooms without a kitchen.
A base charge of $130.40 per month would be charged to high-strength commercial, which includes hotels/motels with dining, schools with cafeterias and showers, super markets, restaurants, casinos, fitness centers, car washes, and RV and campgrounds. Facilities also would have additional per-room or per-student charges, as with other rate classifications.
Just for single family dwellings, the base increase would include $4.16 to service the bonds, a fee which would run from Nov. 15 of this year to Sept. 15, 2040, according to the county's proposed ordinance. Loan repayment would cost customers $5.25 through July 1, 2018. An ongoing fee of $3.60 would go into the district's capital improvement plan.
The county also has increased connection fees from $4,600 per single family dwelling to $9,500, Dellinger said.
A final hearing before the board of Supervisors is scheduled at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7, in Lakeport, according to Special Districts.
Previous meetings were held Aug. 11 and Aug. 16, both in Lower Lake. Coppinger told Lake County News Monday that the first meeting was part of the Lower Lake Community Action Group's regular gathering of between 30 and 40 people. The second meeting drew only one woman.
Monday's meeting drew people who showed frustration, confusion and indignation – or a mixture of all three.
So far, the district has received about 200 protest letters. Coppinger said that, under the auspices of Proposition 218 – which governs rate increases – the county would need to receive protests from more than 50 percent of the 6,800 landowners that got letters from the county about the increase.
Community members pose questions over rate increase reasons
Dellinger explained the large size of the system, which stretches from Lower Lake to Clearlake and was originally put in more than 30 years ago through a series of improvement districts.
There are three components to the wastewater system – collection, treatment and disposal. The Southeast Regional system's problems, Dellinger said, are on the collection side.
Calls and e-mails the agency has received on the hike gave Dellinger “a real strong sense that there is a lack of understanding of what is in a collection system.”
This past March, the Board of Supervisors declared an emergency for the system and put in place a connection moratorium, with connections only considered on a case-by-case basis, Dellinger said.
Those actions resulted from this year's almost normal rain year, which saturated the ground and caused the system to spill in the Meadowbrook area of Highlands Harbor, the system's lowest point which Dellinger said is fed by the Avenues, Lower Lake and the Dam Road area.
Dellinger said the district has just completed a grout sealing program for the system's 1,900 manhole covers, finished smoke testing of more than 200,000 lineal feet of the system and set up a temporary pipeline and pump station at the north end of Bay Street.
The new 12- to 14-inch force main proposed to be run from pump station four to the treatment plant will open up capacity – between 2,500 and 3,100 connections – for whatever future development the city pursues, he said.
The district either can pay to fix the system or continue to pay fines, which the state uses for a cleanup and abatement account that gas stations and oil companies can access for remediating underground tanks, but which can't be used for local system projects, Dellinger said.
One woman in the audience asked if the system can serve the current population and handle increases. Dellinger said yes to both questions, but during the meeting he would emphasize that the system continues to have problems.
“It's basically a leaking system,” he said.
During his eight years as district administrator, Dellinger said that the large amounts of money spent on temporary fixes haven't solved the problem.
City resident Ray Brady said it seemed like there was nothing the community could do about preventing the hike, and he suggested the county should have been able to foresee the problems.
Another woman in the audience suggested community members were being asked to build up a county savings account.
“We're not in the business here to make a profit. There is no profit,” Coppinger replied, explaining that all of the money raised in the system stays in the system, and is used for it specifically.
Another audience member wanted to know how Special Districts used the $5.25 per household increase instituted in 1996. Dellinger said it was used for $8 million in treatment plant improvements, and will continue being paid until 2016.
Coppinger said the proposed rates are meant to make up for the fact that the system's rates have been understated and too low to properly maintain the system.
Dellinger and Coppinger were questioned about pursuing grants, which Coppinger said they're always doing. She said grants now are insisting on having capital improvement programs in place to plan for future needs, as well as having rates high enough to maintain the system.
Alice Reece asked if the lending institution offering the funds for the bond can foreclose on community members' property if the money isn't repaid. Dellinger said he would look into that, but added that he hadn't heard of such a possibility.
Estelle Creel asked how they decided on the size of the 12- to 14-inch force main. Dellinger said they determined it based on a reasonable growth rate of 1.5 percent.
She also asked if the Provinsalia and airport shopping center could be developed without the improvements, suggesting community members are going to be required to pay for a project to benefit developers. Dellinger said new development must pay its own system capacity fees.
Shortly before 7:30 p.m. all but 10 people walked out of the meeting, with several of those remaining blaming the county for not fixing the problem sooner.
Dellinger assured them that system capacity issues don't just exist in Clearlake. He lives in Kelseyville, where he's seen his sewer rates increase in recent years by 158 percent, with a 75-percent water rate increase.
A man in the audience asked if there was another way to get the the funding for the plant. Dellinger said it's never cheaper to build than it is right now, and it would take three to four years to get a loan through the state's revolving loan fund.
He said the county could continue using pumper trucks to deal with spills from the system, “But it's expensive. It's not the way to do business.”
The county also isn't asking for the full 150-percent increase that a rate study completed two years ago suggested should be pursued, he said.
Reece said Dellinger was presenting the situation as an emergency, and asked why the county couldn't get federal Clean Water Act funding.
Dellinger replied that the county applied for that funding for all 10 of its water systems and all four wastewater systems. It received only $2.5 million for the Kelseyville wastewater treatment plant, which currently is under construction.
“And there won't be any more” of those funds coming the county's way, which Dellinger said shows the serious condition of the nation's infrastructure, with an “oversubscription” for the limited federal dollars.
Reece said the increases would put businesses under, and accused the supervisors of being short-sighted before she exclaimed, “This is just too much” and walked out of the meeting, with the gathering wrapping up shortly afterward.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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