NIPOMO, Calif. (KEYT) – The Nipomo Community Services District (NCSD) Board of Directors is set to vote one week from today on a proposal that would raise monthly water rates by a significant margin.
The NCSD, which provides water and wastewater services to just under 14,000 people within the Nipomo area, is considering a series of water rate adjustments that would begin early next year.
In September, NSCD board members made a series of approvals, including voting for a 2025 Water Rate Study and rate adoption schedule, authorizing a notice for a rate hearing, scheduling a public hearing and deadline for submission of written objections to consider proposed water rates.
The Water Rate Study was conducted by the firm Tucker & Associates to help guide the district in their planning to increase revenue in order offset future costs.
Under the proposals, customers would see their monthly bill increase between 13.6% to 8.1% depending on usage.
"It is a hard hit," NCSD General Manager Ray Dienzo said in a September interview. "I acknowledge that it's a lot, but it is necessary for a healthy water system and to maintain a good operation and maintenance and to maintain our upgrades with our capital projects that will make sure that our water system continues to run well, and not only that, that the water supply that we're paying for, the imported water that we're paying for offers good water supply and security, moving forward."
Next Wednesday on Dec. 10, the NCSD will officially vote on the proposed water rate increases, which is raising a lot of concern from many in the community.
"The recurring things that I heard when I spoke to people was, this is out of control and crazy," said NCSD customer Criss Blake, who is against the proposed rate increases. "It's just a huge burden for so many people. People are looking at the rising costs of everything. Every grocery that they buy, everything is incredibly high now and they've tightened their belt, but the timing of this, I find is just pretty bad."
The NCSD has indicated under current rates, there will be insufficient funding for a scheduled increase in water delivery from Santa Maria, as well as planned capital improvement, as well as the additional revenue is necessary to help the district avoid depleting its reserve funds.
"It is important to have the reserves," said Dienzo. "It's important to maintain or capital improvement projects going. If this doesn't go through, we would have to make significant cuts in our capital program, perhaps, which would be detrimental to the district because we definitely want good water supply for the future. If we didn't have that, it would be very difficult."
With the final vote looming, NCSD customers do have the opportunity to stop the proposed rate increases themselves and essentially take the vote away from the board.
If 50% plus one of the total amount of NCSD customers object to the proposed rate adjustments, the increases would be stopped.
To officially object the proposed rate increases, customers must submit an official valid written protest that includes a statement against the increase, the name of the customer, address or parcel number, original signature and date when signed.
Protests must be received before the closure of next week's NCSD public hearing.
"The protest vote is extremely important," said Blake. "I'm hoping everyone will look into the resources that are out on social media. There's information on the NCSC web page. There is some information that you can find. Everyone should do that, and also, attend the meeting and, and be seen and be heard by the district."
Should the rate increases earn approval, it would go into effect on Feb. 1, 2026 and increase each year on same date in 2027 and 2028.
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