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- Written by: Sophie Annan Jensen
The CPUC held a prehearing conference on the increases Monday, June 23, in San Francisco. The rate increases were not opposed by the Lucerne Community Water Organization (LCWO), which formed in 2005 to intervene in a rate increase proposal that year.
LCWO President Craig Bach said he has communicated with the CPUC Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) and the administrative law judge on the case, Douglas M. Long, but the organization made no attempt to intervene in the case.
Third District supervisor Denise Rushing said LCWO and the county have discussed the case, but “we haven't been asked to formally intervene at this point"
Bach said neither he nor the few other people who regularly attend LCWO meetings have had the time to attend San Francisco hearings or announce a local meeting on the current proposal.
The group's next meeting will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 10, at the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, 10th Avenue and Country Club Drive.
In Lucerne, where it has approximately 1,900 customers, Cal Water asks for a $.62 hike per 100 cubic feet. The company says the proposal would increase the average monthly bill for 700 cubic feet of water per month from the current $67.04 to $71.35 in mid-2009.
The company recently announced a scheduled $17.34 monthly surcharge will start when the company's new plant on Highway 20 goes online soon. Company representatives were unable to say exactly how soon, although both July 1 and September 1 have been mentioned as goals. The surcharge will repay an $8 million zero-interest state loan for the plant.
Golden State serves approximately 2,164 customers in the city of Clearlake, covering the lakefront area north to Park Lane, and south into Borax Lake, Country Club and South Olympic, according to Paul Schubert, the Clearlake system manager. Their customers would see a monthly increase of 16 cents per 100 cubic feet.
Golden State's current charge per 100 cubic feet is $3.782, with a service charge of $42.15 for the typical residential 5/8 x 3/4-inch meter. A four cent surcharge per 100 cubic feet covers discounts for participants in the California Alternative Rates for Water (CARW).
The current Cost of Capital (COC) proposals are intended to make the companies' stocks more attractive to investors, according to an announcement from Cal Water, which said the increase will assist the company in “maintaining an investment grade rating.” The applications have been consolidated by the CPUC for procedural reasons, Schubert said.
Golden State Water's parent company, American States Water Co. (NYSE:AWR), reported a drop in 2008 first-quarter earnings of nine cents per share from the same period in 2007.
California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) announced 2008 first-quarter net income of $0.2 million and diluted earnings per common share of $0.01, a drop from net income of $1.6 million and diluted earnings per common share of $0.07 for the first quarter of 2007.
The company's April 30 press release noted “a decline in investment income.” Despite that, on January 23, 2008, Cal Water announced a dividend of $0.29250, the highest since 1992, the earliest date on its Web site.
E-mail Sophie Annan Jensen at
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- Written by: Sophie Annan Jensen
“Shares of American Water Works have gained 9 percent since its initial offering April 23 ... In the same timeframe, shares of Aqua America Inc. shed 4 percent and shares of California Water Service Group slipped 7 percent,” the June 16 AP story said.
But the cities of Providence, RI, and Trenton, NJ are considering selling all or part of their systems to water corporations.
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&date=20080616&id=8782551
In other countries, Inter Press Service reported June 23 that “Water is flowing back into public hands.”
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42922
The mayor of Paris said June 2 that the city will discontinue its 100-year-long contracts with the world's two biggest water service companies, Suez and Veolia, as of Dec. 31, 2009.
"We want to offer a better service, at a better price," Mayor Bertrand Delanoë said. "We also promise that prices would be stable."
The story adds “The list of ‘re-municipalisation’ of water services is long, and includes countries as diverse as Mali in West Africa, Uruguay where water has been brought back into the hands of the state at a national level, Buenos Aires and Santa Fe in Argentina, Cochabamba in Bolivia and Hamilton in Canada, besides other cities in France.”
E-mail Sophie Annan Jensen at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Fire officials told Lake County News they were dispatched shortly before 10 p.m. to a report of a boat on fire a short distance offshore from Nice's Keeling Park.
Northshore Fire Battalion Chief Ken Petz said witnesses reported several subjects on the boat were setting off large fireworks – similar to those one would see in a professional show – and the boat caught fire.
The subjects jumped off the boat, which was anchored, and were reportedly picked up by another smaller boat, according to accounts from fire personnel at the scene.
The boat went up in flames quickly, said Petz, and burned down to its water line.
Three Lake County Sheriff's deputies, and two Northshore Fire engines and several other small fire trucks were on scene, with officials speaking with witnesses along the shoreline and at a home in the 3200 block of Lakeshore Boulevard. Many people reported seeing the incident, said Petz.
“Nobody wants to fess up to who owned the boat,” he added.
Petz said the Sheriff's Boat Patrol was trying to get the burned boat to shore, and also was looking for the responsible subjects.
Northshore Fire also was keeping an eye out for them, while responding to numerous calls reporting illegal use of fireworks in connection with the July 4 holiday, Petz said.
This year, fireworks were illegal for sale and use in all of Lake County, with the city of Lakeport – which has continued to allow safe and sane fireworks – issuing a temporary ban on use and sales due to concerns over extreme fire danger this summer.
Radio traffic Friday night and early Saturday morning included numerous reports of illegal fireworks around the county, along with loud parties, fights and reported burglaries.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Cal Fire reported Friday that the late June lightning storms set a total of 1,781 fires around the state, of which 335 are still active. Among those fires, 1,005 were within Cal Fire jurisdiction, and 57 are still burning. Total acres burned statewide is 529,971.
In Lake County, fires on the Mendocino National Forest have scorched more than 12,000 acres since June 21. That's when lightning set off fires across the forest, from the Soda Complex on the Upper Lake Ranger District in Lake and Mendocino counties to the Yolla Bolly Complex in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness. There are a total of 598 firefighters working both complexes.
Forest spokesperson Phebe Brown reported that the Soda Complex is 70-percent contained overall. It is located in remote areas to the north and northwest of Lake Pillsbury.
Its three active fires include the 2,190-acre Big Fire, which is 95-percent contained, followed in size by the Monkey Rock Fire, 1,060 acres at 10-percent contained, and the Mill Fire, 750 acres at 30-percent contained, Brown reported. A fourth fire, the Back, burned 1,600 acres and was contained earlier this week.
Brown said crews worked on Friday to complete and strengthen control lines on the Big, Monkey Rock
and Mill fires, with the latter two fires either partially or totally within designated wilderness.
In addition, mop up has begun on areas of the Mill Fire with continued efforts to stop its spread to the south, said Brown.
A report from forest spokesperson Mary Christensen late Friday, said the Yolla Bolly Complex has burned 6,840 acres and is 10-percent contained.
On Friday crews completed line construction for a planned burnout on the southeast flank of the Slides and Harvey Fires, both of which are now 100-percent contained, Christensen reported. Some of the fires are being allowed to burn into natural barriers, such as rock outcrops.
Christensen said on Saturday a burnout is planned using containment lines and natural barriers along the southeast flank of the Slides and Harvey Fires. The operation will be implemented with both hand and aerial ignition devices, and will restrict the fires from moving out of the wilderness and onto the surrounding private lands.
Total containment isn't expected until Oct. 30, Christensen reported. The cost to fight that complex thus far is $937,025. No cost estimate has been given for the Soda Complex.
Elsewhere on the North Coast, the Mendocino Lightning Complex has burned 39,700 acres and is 45-percent contained, Cal Fire reported. There are 1,630 personnel and 159 engines on scene, which includes a five-engine strike team from Lake County.
Of the original 123 fires ignited by lightning, 45 are still active in Mendocino County, according to Cal Fire.
That complex has so far cost $16.7 million to fight, and on Thursday claimed another high toll with the death of an Anderson Valley firefighter who suffered respiratory distress.
For more information about the fires on the Mendocino National Forest visit the Forest Service Web site at www.fs.fed.us/r5/mendocino/currentconditions.
Cal Fire's Web site at www.cdf.ca.gov has updates on the Mendocino Lightning Complex and other fires around the state.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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