Ojai Valley News Blog

Holly Thrasher stands outside her home where water costs forced them to replace much of their landscaping with low-water alternatives. (photo by Tim Dewar)

To help Ojai residents understand how the proposed buyout of Golden State Water Company might impact the rates they could pay for water, the Oai Valley News will profile several typical Golden State Water Company customers. We will compare their average water usage at today’s GSWC rates and what those charges would be as a Casitas Municipal Water District customer including the proposed property tax.

Water customer
Wiley, Holly and Vance Thrasher

Size & type of lot
Less than 10,000 square feet, residential

Annual water usage
164 units

All charges from Golden State Water Company for 164 units
$993.84 annually

All charges from Casitas Municipal Water District for 164 units
$404.77 annually

Maximum annual bond payment for this lot
$480

Total annual combined bond and CMWD water charge at today’s rates.
$884.77

Result
Golden State Water Company’s annual charge is $109.07 more than comparable CMWD rates combined with the bond amount.

If vote was held on the bond today, would customer support it?
“I think so. It (Golden State rates) is just going to continue to go up if we stay with Golden State.,” – Holly Thrasher

To complete your own rate comparison, you will need the previous one year’s  Golden State Water Company bills (six bills). Go here to access the rate calculator.

Select bi-monthly for “How you are billed.” Select pumped for “Gravity or Pumped.” Select residential for “Customer Type.” Find your meter type on your GSWC bill and enter that in the “Meter Size” menu. Enter the number of water units used individually for each of your six bills. Click the calculate button and make note of the estimated water bill amount each time. Add these six amounts together.

Next, you will figure the bond amount you would have to pay if it were in effect today. This amount will be added to the estimated water bill amount from the rate calculator and that is the figure you will compare with the total amount paid to Golden State for the year.

For this, you will need to determine the size of your parcel. If you are not sure, contact the Ventura County Assessor’s Office at 654-2181. For single-family parcels larger than one acre, your maximum annual bond payment this year would be $2,093. For single-family parcels between 22,000 and 43,560 square feet, your maximum annual bond payment this year would be $1,235. For single-family parcels between 10,000 and 22,000 square feet, your annual maximum bond payment this year would be $741. For single-family parcels less than 10,000 square feet, your maximum annual bond payment this year would be $480. Condominium owners would pay $407 annually this year. There are also rates for commercial and industrial property owners that we will give when we profile those types of properties.