Guest column: Change the way Poway bases sewer charges

The costs of disposing water through the sewer system is heavily tilted to gouge the lower water users and favor those who use the most. The less water you use, the more it costs you.

This is true in the City of Poway if you’re hooked up to the residential sewer system. A low water user will pay over four times the amount in commodity rate charges per unit than someone at the highest end of usage.

Ignoring the fixed service charges, here’s what the disposal costs are for a unit of water in the middle of each of the seven tiers, according to the Proposition 218 flyer the city recently sent out:

Tier 1, $8.49 per unit for three units. Tier 2, $4.99/unit for nine units; Tier 3, $4.23/unit for 16 units; Tier 4, $3.22/unit for 23 units; Tier 5, $2.72/unit for 32 units; Tier 6, $2.27/unit for 44 units; Tier 7, $2.00/unit for 55 units.

With the cost of water at $4.27/unit, the lowest tier is paying almost twice as much to dispose of the water, $8.49/unit, as it costs to deliver it. Contrast that to the Tier 7 high water user paying $2.00/unit. The lowest three tiers are paying more to dispose of the water than to buy it to start with.

Years ago, Poway paid a consultant to come up with water and sewer fees and the consultant suggested a tiered water structure, with low water users paying less per unit for delivery than the high water users. After complaints from the higher water users, the water structure was made into two tiers. However, the sewer tiers were left alone.

It’s time for low water users to quit subsidizing the higher water users in the disposal costs. Since the city says that they “experience increased pass-through costs for sewer treatment” as a reason to raise rates, shouldn’t the high water users that use the sewer system the most pay the same or more than the ones who conserve and use less water and cost the system less to treat?

The fair thing to do would be to charge a flat rate for sewer disposal based on the number of units used. That way the water delivery, and disposal, is the same for water conservationists as it is for those who use more.