Q&A: What Just Happened To My Water Bill?

Water bills are about to go up for nearly 3,000 customers of the Purissima Hills Water District, following .

The district which serves approximately a population of about 6,000 people in Los Altos Hills and has 10 institutional customers.

Los Altos Patch asked PHWD general Manager Patrick Walter to explain what happens next.

Los Altos Patch: How much was the water rate increase?

Patrick Walter: The increase is $0.51 for every unit sold. (A unit is a CCF, which equals 748 gallons).

Patch: When will I see it in my bill? 

Walter: The increase will be in the April bill. (Bills will go out about April 23)

Patch: What about the "autopilot" feature, the automatic rate increases over five years that I heard so much about?  

Walter: The Board voted not to implement the automatic increases.

Patch: I hear that there were increases proposed for October 2012, too. What about those?

Walter: There are no planned increases for October 2012.

Patch: How will the board handle future increases if there is no automatic increase provision anymore? 

Walter: There will be a rate study, (Prop.) 218 notice and hearing for the next proposed increase.

Patch: When will the next increases be proposed? 

Walter: There are too many variables to predict the next rate increase.

Patch: What happened to the proposal to tie increases to the Consumer Price Index? 

Walter: The Consumer Price Index was a component of the automatic increases that the Board voted not to implement.