Local Water District to Pass Along 5 Percent Water Rate Increase

The board of the Foothill Municipal Water District, which represents most of the households in Altadena, voted to pass along a 5 percent increase previously approved by the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), which is Southern California's largest water wholesaler.

The water increase will affect local consumers starting in January of 2013.

In addition, the district's board voted to spend $2 million on new emergency standby electrical generators - the generators are used to pump water during blackouts and are essential to keeping water on during emergency events, according to the district's press release.  The generators will be paid for partially from reserve funds and partially from revenue from customers, according to Nina Jazmadarian, the district's general manager.

The Foothill District is a public agency that represents Altadena, La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge.  It gets all of its water from the MWD while maintaining local water infrastructure.

All of Altadena's water companies fall under the jurisdiction, though customers of the Kinneloa Irrigation Company will not be affected by the rate increases as they draw all their water from local supplies.  Some Altadena households also get their water from the Pasadena Water and Power company.

The rest of the water companies in Altadena get their water from a mix of MWD and local sources.

The board of the Metropolitan Water District approved next year's 5 percent increase and another increase of 5 percent for 2014 at its meeting in April. MWD's stated purpose of the increases is to pay for updating infrastructure.

The Foothill Municipal Water District board approved the increase at its Monday meeting during its regular budget process - the board trimmed its budget by about $28,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, according to Jazmadarian.  However, the district is projecting a $400,000 deficit in the upcoming fiscal year, according to budget records on the site.