State Water Board staff outline common EAR Section 8 errors, new shutoff questions and support options

State Water Resources Control Board Division of Drinking Water staff used a March office hours webinar to walk water systems through Section 8 of the Electronic Annual Report (EAR), identify frequent reporting mistakes and introduce reinserted questions on residential shutoffs and customer assistance.

The webinar, led by Division staff and using a prerecorded demonstration from William Allen of the Needs Analysis Unit, focused on how to report customer charges, rate structures and system revenues in Section 8A and 8B and on newly restored questions in Section 8C related to shutoffs and arrearages. "We are going to be going over section 8," the session host said at the start of the hour, introducing the format: play the training video, pause for questions and offer supplemental slides from Rachel Skillman of the Needs Analysis Unit.

Why it matters: EAR Section 8 feeds the division's standardized back-end calculation of a single monthly water charge equivalent (the division uses a 6 HCF-per-month standard). Errors in how systems enter units or rate tiers can produce implausible outcomes that trigger automated flags and require staff follow-up.

Most common problems identified - Unit-of-measure mismatches: Presenters repeatedly warned that selecting "gallons" when the rate is actually expressed in "thousand gallons" inflates the calculated rate shown in Section 8B. The staff demonstrated an example in…