Attorney Andrew McClure conducted the March 31 public hearing held by Butte Water District. 

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – A vote was taken at the Butte Water District (BWD) March 31 public hearing to raise water rates and implement a new Groundwater Management Fee. The rate increases are within the parameters of the five-year plan outlined in the 2024 Cost of Service Study.  

Butte Water District Manager Donnie Stinnett told the Gridley Herald in February that copies of the study and the meeting notice were previously prepared and mailed out to all landowners in the district in accordance with Proposition 218, passed in 1996. By this law, California water districts are required to obtain an independent cost-of-service study, with a projected five-year plan in place, specifying maximum amounts of increase for each year. Any potential fee increases must be within those limits and a public meeting must be held. 

Landowners had until March 10 to object or protest by March 31 at the time of the vote. If a majority of the 3,644 landowners had protested the increase, the district could not by law raise the rates. The majority needed was 50% plus 1 or about 1,800 parcels. It was announced that only 37 protests were made.

“Every landowner has the right to reject it or vote against it. You can look at the report and if you don’t agree with it, you can protest. Everything is transparent,” former Butte Water District Manager Mark Orme told the Gridley Herald in February.

The appropriate forms for protests were online at buttewaterdistrict.org. 

Many landowners either called or met with board members for additional information, according to Stinnett.

 

The Butte Water District Board of Directors invited public comment about rate increases during the March 31 meeting. 

“We met with hundreds and hundreds of people, either in the office or in the field,” said Stinnett.

The meeting, conducted by attorney Andrew McClure, was well-attended and public comments were invited periodically as part of the agenda. 

There was a slide presentation by Alison Lechowicz, Municipal Consultant, summarizing the needs for the rate increase and groundwater management fee, as found by the Cost-of-Service Study. 

“These are the legal maximum rates,” Lechowicz said, and the increases will be evaluated by the board year-to-year if rates need to be raised to the maximum rates or not. “These really are the worst-case scenario rates.”  

At present, Butte Water District relies on water rate revenues, standby fees (an assessment of $7 per acre, initiated in 2013) and surplus water transfers to outside entities (variable from year-to-year, according to Lechowicz) to pay for water delivery.  Ground Water Substitutions, when water is supplied from two district-owned wells, also provides funds.  

Currently, water rates and standby fee revenues generate $800,000 or a little more than half of the $1.5 million total annual operating costs. The increase will help bridge the gap between revenues and cost of operation. 

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) authorizes the Groundwater Sustainability Agency (in this case, the Butte Water District) to charge the Groundwater Management Fee. 

“The Groundwater Management Fee will cover about 25% of the total cost of operation,” Lechowicz said.

All parcels with wells on-site, pumping or using pumped groundwater from nearby sources, will be subject to the new fee. For those not benefitting from ground water, there is a form to file for a fee exemption. 

A tutorial on Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and why it was enacted can be found at youtu.be/Vtr07_bZKlg.

Each landowner will be subject to a Standby Fee (increased to the maximum of $8.68 per acre), the Groundwater Management Fee ($12.78 per acre) and Water Delivery rate that varies by crop. Homeowners with wells but no farmland will be charged the Groundwater Management Fee.

During the public comment following the slide presentation, one attendee inquired about the portion of the $1.5- million budget devoted to staffing costs. In the Cost-of-Service Study, the amount is disclosed as about $1 million needed for salaries and benefits of employees. 

Some concerns were expressed by landowners being charged for water pumped from their own property.

“Did Butte Water District somehow put the water in the ground that homeowners are pumping out?” asked Joan Cameron.

The Butte Water District board maintained that the district has imported surface water to the area from the Feather River for more than a hundred years, thus replenishing the groundwater. 

“We decided to form our own GSA (Groundwater Sustainability Agency), that keeps the state out, it keeps the counties out and you have this board to trust. Everybody has to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. You can only extract as much groundwater as you have surface water to match. You are very fortunate that your land is in the Butte Water District, because it’s the best one of the bunch,” said Butte Water District Board President Charlie Etcheverry.

After the meeting, Susan Schohr, who owns property in four water districts, spoke with the Gridley Herald.

“I worked with this water district from the onset of this Proposition 218 to do this with the water rates. I have worked with other water districts and I have been dismayed by outcomes and what their plans were,” Schohr said. “The cost of this study starts at about $60,000 to $70,000, just to do what they did today, to have Alison and her team come in, and you want to be sure of where you’re going with that when you’re done. The amount of money that they take from all of us, and yes, farming is not good right now, particularly rice farming where they (Butte Water District) get the most of their money because that’s using the most water. No, none of us can afford to do this but it’s mandated by the state.”

General Manager Stinnett said “I thought it was a very informative meeting. I still encourage people that have questions to get a hold of our office (phone 530-846-3100). I’m still more than happy to spend as much time as needed to explain how the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act works. This is happening across the state; we’re just doing our part.”