Use More, Pay More

The new water rate structure approved this week by commissioners of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is a major step forward in local efforts to conserve water. The top-to-bottom rate overhaul will reward residential and business customers who use less of this region’s most precious commodity and penalize those who use more.

Under the new rate policy, which still needs approval from the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley, about 71% of residential customers and 65% of businesses will see reductions in water bills.

DWP’s action follows the recommendations of the mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Water Rates, convened last summer when the city was forced to impose a mandatory conservation program to deal with the local effects of California’s prolonged drought. That program was successful in getting local residents to reduce their water usage. But the limits imposed on individual residences struck some as arbitrary. Worse still, the agency came under heavy fire for raising water rates to cover its fixed expenses just as it ordered customers to cut back on usage. Responding to the frustration of many who felt they were being penalized as much for conserving water as others were for overusing it, the committee called for a massive overhaul and simplification of the agency’s cumbersome rate structure.

The new proposal fits the bill, so to speak. The plan would establish a two-tier rate system for residential users under which any household using more than 175% of the median usage would pay much more for that additional water. At the same time, the typical residential customer--using 18,000 gallons every two months--would see a billing drop of about $5.75.

The plan may need some fine tuning. Suburban homeowners, particularly those with large lots in the region’s hotter valleys, may be disproportionately hit. But DWP’s basic principle is sound: If you use more water, you should pay more.