Announcement on surcharges (October 27, 2015)
(At the Apple Valley Town Council Meeting)
At the August 25 meeting I told you that we went right to Stage 2 with drought surcharges because we knew that we would have trouble catching up if we fell behind during the summer, but we also knew that we could revert to Stage 1 if we got to a point where we believed that we were going to meet the conservation target. We have been carefully monitoring our progress and the remaining conservation necessary to meet the cumulative target.
Based on our latest comparison to October of 2013, data gathered and analyzed this morning, we are preparing to revert to Stage 1 effective November 1.
Many factors contributed to this decision but most all of our customers are to be commended for making changes to their lifestyle and doing their part to conserve.
This decision is made based on: 1) the progress we have made so far by going directly to Stage 2 for the summer months when we needed to achieve conservation in excess of the target, so that the lower levels of conservation that are achievable in the winter will still allow the target to be met; 2) the fact that the CPUC is proposing to take the conservation target into account in setting our rates, so the proposed new rates will, in themselves, send a continuing price signal to encourage conservation; and 3) the expectation that our customers will continue efforts to conserve – we still need to achieve reductions from 2013 over the remaining fall and winter months of about 17–18% to meet the cumulative target.
We will continue monitoring and will have to go back to Stage 2 and re-implement the drought surcharges if it looks like we may not meet the target. We ask everyone to cooperate and continue to conserve so we don’t have to do that.
— Leigh Jordan, Executive Vice President of Apple Valley Ranchos