Diamond Bar residents face water rate hike

HAYDEN — The owners of Diamond Bar Estates Water Co. are asking the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for permission to raise their water rates nearly 80 percent.

“This increase is necessary so the company can recover its operating costs,” owner Bob Turnipseed said in a press release issued last week. “The company has operated at a loss for a number of years.”

According to Turnipseed, the company last raised its rates in 2007 and has not been able to go through the process of raising rates as often as he should have.

“We are a small water company with about 40 customers on 5-acre parcels,” he said, adding the cost of irrigating that much property is expensive. “We should have went for a rate increase every two or three years, but we just didn’t have the money to get that through Boise.”

Turnipseed said in order to raise water rates he has to apply to do so through the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.

“That process can take up to nine months,” he said, adding smaller increases don’t require as much scrutiny as he will face with his current request. “They are going to come up and audit our books and hold a series of public meetings.”

Turnipseed said he had no choice but to file for a rate increase this year after the water district’s main well failed and needed to be repaired.

Diamond Bar Estates only has one well, but Turnipseed had another private well to use while repairs were made to the primary well.

In order to recoup those costs — and to absorb natural gas and electricity increases over the last eight years — Turnipseed is proposing to raise the rate on Feb. 1 by approximately 79.39 percent.

The increase would raise base monthly charges including the first 5,500 gallons of water from $29.00 per month to $52.02 per month.

“We just have a bunch of little things, but all those little things add up at the end of the year,” he said.

He is also proposing to increase its charges for water delivered in excess of 5,500 gallons per month from $0.80 to $1.44 per thousand gallons.

The company is also requesting an increase in the charges associated with new customers.

Gene Fadness, a spokesman for the IPUC, said his agency is already hearing from customers who are angry about the increase.

“But customers don't have to worry about an overnight decision on this,” Fadness said, explaining the IPUC is planning to hold a series of public workshops and hearings on the rate request. “These things can take six months.”

Fadness said there will also be a written public comment period as well.

For customers interested in commenting on the rate increase, the company’s application is on file and available for review at its business office located at 2953 N. Government Way in Coeur d’Alene.

A copy is also posted on the IPUC website at puc.idaho.gov. Interested parties can also sign up to receive periodic email updates about the case.

Comments and inquiries may also be addressed to the IPUC on its website by going to the “file room” link on the homepage and scrolling to the bottom of the list to “file a comment or complaint.”

Case number DIA-W-15-01 should be identified in all correspondence with the IPUC. The Application is a proposal subject to public review and a commission decision.