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Riverside utilities board votes to close WA 12 agricultural water rate to new customers
Summary
After a public hearing and public comments, the Board of Public Utilities approved staff’s recommendation to close the WA 12 agricultural service water rate to new customers, citing a $684,000 annual program cap and projections that the cap will be met within a year at current enrollment.
The Riverside Board of Public Utilities voted July 13 to adopt a resolution recommending the closure of the WA 12 agricultural service water rate schedule to new customers, forwarding the measure to the City Council for final action. Staff told the board the WA 12 rate — established following a 2019 joint public hearing — uses an Agricultural Water Allocation formula and carries a $684,000 annual program-assistance cap. Brian Sinterior, assistant general manager of finance and administration, said the city’s accounting of under-collections and current enrollment means the program would reach that cap by 2028 at the current customer level of about 245 accounts.
Two in-person public commenters urged different responses. Kevin Dawson, who said he served on the original task force, asked the board to preserve the program’s goal of promoting local agriculture and to convene a short review task force to consider program tweaks. “I hate to see what took over a year be kind of stymied or undone in just one meeting,” Dawson said. Another commenter, Gurumanchakalsa, urged the city to rethink how it supports local agriculture and criticized using Proposition 218-related constraints to limit access to irrigation water: “We’re publicly owned. This is our utility, and we’re tired of being treated like ATMs,” the speaker said.
Board members pressed staff for the program’s history and mechanics. Sinterior said the $684,000 figure reflected historic under-collection tied to earlier agricultural rates and that the allocation formula includes Riverside-specific evapotranspiration and crop factors. City attorney staff (Susan Wilson) advised that the City Council may, by resolution, identify non-rate revenue sources that could be used to raise the program limit if those uses would not violate Prop 218. After discussion, a motion to move staff’s recommendation carried; the board recorded one dissent (Vice Chair Woganmuth) and will ask the City Council to consider a formal resolution to close WA 12 to new customers.
Next steps: the board’s recommendation will go to City Council for consideration; council action is required to finalize any change in the rate schedule or program cap.
