Water Bills to Triple in Lucerne Valley

By Ryan Orr, Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.

Nov. 28–LUCERNE VALLEY — Lucerne Valley residents were slapped with an increased cost of hauled water that will more than triple the average bill from $130 to $424 a month.

The increase was announced Tuesday night at the Lucerne Valley Community Center to a packed house of angry residents.

A sting operation in August by the California Highway Patrol and the state put water haulers, who were not properly licensed, out of business and shut down wells that didn’t pass health requirements.

Subsequently, residents were left without water, and the county Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency.

The county opened a temporary well and offered water haulers service at just $1 per load — about 2,000 gallons.

T he county could have stopped the service once the emergency was over, but due to a lack of other available water sources, kept filling up local water haulers.

Most water haulers were shut down in the original sting and are still operating under temporary permits until they can get their paperwork together.

Since the original emergency in August, the county has lost nearly $67,000 selling water at such a discount.

Before the sting, well owners charged water haulers anywhere from $15 to $30 per 2,000-gallon load, said Rhonda Moore of #1 Moore Water Service.

As a water hauler, she then sold it to a customer at $65. An average family of four uses two loads, or $130, of water a month.

The price is set to go from $1 to $167 a load, said Manuel Benitez, chief of special districts in the county.

The $167, which still has to go before the Board of Supervisors, is to cover operational costs of the well, which the county was hoping to close because it doesn’t have the infrastructure to accommodate water hauling, Benitez said.

The average hike to the water hauler would be $147 and assuming that they pass through the increase, a family of four that was paying $130 a month will now pay roughly $424 a month.

"That is completely outrageous," Moore said. "It would put me out of business."

Residents were not pleased at the Lucerne Valley Municipal Advisory Council meeting, which was hardly a meeting at all. There were only two MAC members and a room full of citizens asking questions out of order.

Michael Orme, a representative for 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, and Benitez tried their best to answer questions despite the lack of order.

"We wish you to resign," declared one angry resident. "If you do not, you and your supervisors will not be voted in again."

By the end of the meeting the residents had pulled together and agreed to help pay for the fees to keep a local well operational.

Max McNeeley lost most of his business to the county well because of the $1 price and was not planning on keeping it open. Now facing the huge increase, residents vowed to help Max pay the renewals and testing fees on his well and even began passing around a hat for donations.

"Well I have different emotions," McNeeley said. "A lot of people say things in the heat of the moment, but if they follow through who knows?"

The MAC members made a recommendation to shut down the county well.

"We decided the government is actually running free enterprise out of business," said Millie Rader, MAC member.

Orme said the county would take the recommendation into consideration.

"It’s nice to see the community pull together to save one of their own," Orme said.

The county raised the rate in order to stop losing money. However the majority of the room agreed that if more wells do not become available and Max does end up closing his well, Lucerne Valley will end up right where they started, in a state of emergency.

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