Drought surcharge for customers of East Bay Municipal Utility District in California
3/2/2023 12:00:00 AM
CATEGORIES:
Relief, Response & Restrictions
Water Supply & Quality
AFFECTED AREAS:
Alameda County, CA
Contra Costa County, CA
Start Date: 5/10/2022
- End Date: 3/1/2023
The East Bay Municipal Utility District ended its drought surcharge on March 1 as winter storms refilled reservoirs. The 8% surcharge took effect on July 1, 2022, and was used to purchase additional water supplies and expenses. Since fall 2022, EBMUD has spent $19 million on supplemental water. Incredible precipitation has pushed EBMUD’s reservoirs to 82% of capacity. The drought surcharge has already covered drought expenses for the fiscal year, so the surcharge has been dropped. In 2022, East Bay customers used 32,000 fewer acre-feet of water than in 2020.
As of March, 2 2023, EBMUD remained in a stage 2 drought with a mandated 10% reduction in water use and other directives, such as watering outdoors no more than thrice weekly, no pavement washing, etc.
Berkeleyside (Berkeley, Calif.), March 2, 2023
The East Bay Municipal Utility District voted to add a drought surcharge to water bills starting July 1. The fee will be an 8% surcharge over the amount normally paid for water and is expected to bring in about $30 million in the next year.
KTVU (Oakland, Calif.), May 10, 2022
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