LAKE ELSINORE -- Residents in the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District who lavish water on their properties will face stiff monthly charges under a revised rate structure and price increases adopted by the district's board Thursday.

While nearly all of the district's customers will see some sort of an increase when they receive their bills for July around the beginning of August, those who use water indiscriminately will pay much more than they have been.

Directors said they had no choice but to charge customers more as a result of the much greater costs the district is encountering in buying water.

"We're trying to manage this water district so it doesn't go into bankruptcy," Director John Lloyd said. "If we don't figure out a way to absorb these rate increases (in the water the district buys), we're going to go into bankruptcy."

At the same time, the directors emphasized that the district has been mandated by the agency from which it buys water -- Western Municipal Water District -- to cut back its water distribution 10 percent or face draconian price penalties. Hence, district administrators came up with a five-tier rate structure that rewards customers who conserve and have moderate water use while punishing those who waste water with sharply higher rates.

"We live in a desert; we're in a drought," said Director Harvey Ryan, who listened in on the meeting from Massachusetts through a conference call. "Water is a commodity that's going to be as precious as oil."

Thursday's meeting, which lasted four hours, attracted at least 80 residents and property owners, most of whom were alarmed by -- and opposed to -- the proposed increases.

"Where I've been placed in the tiers will increase my bill four or five times," said resident Jack Berg, who added he was worried about the effect the new rates would have on retirees like himself.

"Nobody wants to look at dead trees and dead lawns and people getting aced out of what they have worked for for years," he said.

Donald Kuzawa said he believes the rate structure is going to hit even people like himself who try to conserve.

"I couldn't possibly cut one more gallon out of my water usage," unless, he joked, "I drank more beer than water."

District officials, however, emphasized that those who need to use higher amounts of water than they are budgeted for under the rate structure can request a variance through a form that is being mailed to customers and can also be picked up at the office or downloaded from the district's Web site, www.evmwd.com.

District officials say the increases reflect about a 20 percent escalation across the board to offset the rising price of the water the district buys from Western, which sells Elsinore Valley imported water it purchases from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. About 60 percent of Elsinore Valley's water supply comes from Metropolitan through Western, while the rest comes from Elsinore Valley's wells and its Canyon Lake reservoir, officials said.

Metropolitan hiked its price about 15 percent in January, plans an additional 20 percent boost in September and is poised for another hike of about 20 percent early next year, administrators said at the meeting. Those increases reflect a pinched water supply due to drought conditions in Southern California and a reduction in imported water from Northern California to protect smelt in the Sacramento River Delta.

While the district's new rate system sticks with the five-tier structure, it also is divided into a summer budget that will be in effect from May through September and a winter budget in effect October through April.

The average household of four on a 0.18 acre property that uses 2,000 cubic feet of water per month will see its bill for water use go up about 20 percent. One-hundred cubic feet is the equivalent of 748 gallons of water.

In a breakdown provided by the district, that average household now pays $49.95 per month. Under the proposed structure, that family would pay $60.28 per month in the summer and $67.24 in the winter. But that same customer would pay $55.08 in the summer if they cut their use back 10 percent and $59.72 in the winter, with corresponding reductions for conserving even more.

Under that scenario, the household would stay in the lowest two tiers of the district's rate structure, paying the low-volume discount rate of $1.74, per 100 cubic feet, compared to the current rate of $1.18, and the conservation base rate of $2.32 per 100 cubic feet, compared to the current rate of $1.70.

However, if that household were to exceed 4,300 cubic feet of water in the summer or 2,470 cubic feet of water in the winter, they would face a charge of $6.96 per 100 cubic feet in that range during the summer and $9.28 per 100 cubic foot in the winter, compared to the current rate of $2.88 per 100 cubic feet, according to an outline provided by the district.

Call staff writer Michael J. Williams at 951-676-4315, ext. 2635.

Example of water rate changes

These are the old costs and new proposed costs for the summer season for customers in the Elsinore division, which is the district's largest.

table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;}

.tableizer-table th {background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;}