Sonoma, Mendocino water users will pay more for less

<p>Russian River water consumers soon will be paying more while using less of the precious liquid.</p><p>Water agencies in Sonoma and Mendocino counties that depend on the Russian River are planning to raise their rates to compensate for income losses stemming from a state directive to cut water use by up to 50 percent.</p><p>“We’re going to have to double our rates,” said Sean White, executive director of the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District. The district’s budget is dependent on the water it sells wholesale to water agencies and farmers between Lake Mendocino and Hopland.</p><p>The water agency would need to increase its rates from $47 an acre foot to $94 an acre foot to make up for a 50 percent loss of revenue, White said. The size of the rate increase has not yet been decided by the agency’s board of directors. An acre foot of water is enough to supply four average households for one year.</p><p>The state Water Resources Control Board wants Russian River water users in Mendocino County to reduce their water use by 50 percent.</p><p>It has directed the Sonoma County Water Agency to reduce its water consumption by 25 percent and to come up with a plan for implementing water conservation measures in both counties.</p><p>Sonoma County is being asked to conserve less because it has other water sources, including Lake Sonoma, officials said.</p><p>The conservation directive is a condition of allowing the Sonoma County Water Agency to reduce flows in the Russian River this summer in order to conserve water in critically low Lake Mendocino.</p><p>The agency controls much of the water releases from Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino. It is required to do so in a way that benefits both people and endangered fish. There may not be enough for either by fall unless more water is kept in the lake, officials say.</p><p>The Sonoma County Water Agency expects to increase water rates between 10 percent and 30 percent, said Pam Jeane, the agency’s deputy chief engineer.</p><p>Water agencies served by the Russian River in Sonoma and Mendocino counties expect to pass on the increased costs to their customers while imposing water conservation mandates. The size of the rate hikes will be determined in the coming weeks.</p><p>The higher cost of water should help deter people from using too much water. But the real incentive is the threat of a severe water shortage, White said.</p><p>“You couldn’t have a better motivator to do the right thing,” he said.</p>