Jan 17th 2022: The Mesa Water District which services most of Costa Mesa has announced rate increases of up to 35 percent by 2027 to cover the cost of $80 million in upcoming projects. The planned projects include two new water wells, as well as improvements to pump stations, pipelines and upgrades to reservoirs.
The increase in homeowners bills will also help cover the costs of inflation which is raising the prices of everything nationwide. As residents of Costa Mesa are seeing raising prices for everything the increase in their water bill as well may not be popular.
The new higher bills are said by the Mesa Water District to also cover the cost of a purified groundwater replenishment assessment that is charged by the Orange County Water District. Besides the rate increase in January 2023 a new capital charge will start to appear on customers bills.
Apart from most of Costa Mesa the Mesa Water District also supplies water to some unincorporated areas as well as John Wayne Airport and, parts of Newport Beach.
Opinion:
The huge increase in price even if needed is not going to sit well with Costa Mesa homeowners, if the Mesa Water District knew these price increases were going to be needed why didn’t they spread the increase over a longer period. Yes the rise in inflation might not have been expected but they knew the capital infrastructure projects were going to be needed at some point as well as being paid for.
It will be interesting to see if there is any pushback on the rate increase or in a time of inflationary pressure if its just treated as another rising cost at a time when lots of things are getting more expensive.
Sources: Mesa Water District and the Daily Pilot