City of San Diego Water: Are they misinformed, disingenuous, or crazy? The Water Dept. says that it could get sued for complying with the law and offering fair rates to San Diego residents

Well, Rob Davis at Voice of San Diego has done it again. In an article titled "San Diego's Watery Reasoning, Long Live the Status Quo" he exposes what can only be interpreted as either shocking incompetence, rank deception, or possible insanity by the City of San Diego Water Department.

Of these three unpalatable options we can only wonder.

Believe it or not, the City Water Department is defending its current unfair rates on the grounds that imposing fair rates would open them up to "a significant legal challenge potential," according to Jim Barrett, the Water Department's director.

What is this dangerous plan that will get the City sued? It's called a "Water-Budget Based Rate." The idea is simple: Reward people for conserving water, and make people who use more water pay for it.

This type of common sense rate-setting is in wide use in Southern California. Irvine Ranch has used Water-Budget Based Rates for 20 years. Locally, Water Budget Based Rates have been in use by the Padre Dam Municipal Water
District.

In other words, many water districts have deployed rates that reward water conservation and discourage waste, without being sued. Why? Because they comply with California water law.

Yet, inexplicably, Jim Barrett says that charging a fair water rate is legally unsound because it has never "been challenged in court." Barret's statement is disastrously ill-informed.

The article quotes UCAN's Executive Director, Michael Shames, as saying that the threat of court action "is a legal fiction that exists solely within the mind of Jim Barrett and his advisors -- his fellow paranoids." The reality, says Shames, is that " We'd be cheering them ... It'd be very difficult for us to take any action, because it's what we're espousing."

Just to make this whole story crystal clear: Mr. Barrett is claiming that the City will likely get sued if it complies with state law because the law has never been legally challenged. Of course, it will probably never be legally challenged because it is the law. Got it?

That leaves us with three possible options for the City's ill-informed statements about water conservation:

1) The San Diego City Water Department Director is dangerously ill-informed or ignorant.

2) The Water Department has given disingenuous and factually inaccurate legal counsel to the City Council.

3) The Water Department is so out of touch with reality that it is conducting its business in a manner that can best be described as insane.

Of course, there is one other possible reason - The Water Department is afraid of charging fair rates because it might offend someone powerful.

"People who use a lot of water have friends in high places," says UCAN's Executive Director Michael Shames. "And sometimes they're on the City Council themselves. I don't think they're eager to ruffle the feathers of conspicuously consumptive water users.

"It doesn't make sense otherwise. It can't be fear of lawsuits," says Shames.

Get the entire Voice of San Diego story by Rob Davis HERE.

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