Yesterday the Moulton Water District Trustees approved a price increase that will step prices up over the next three years. The action will result in a $20 monthly hike in the average residential bill. The Santa Margarita District is expected to approve similar increases at its meeting on July 8.
On June 1 the average Moulton bill will surge from $37 to $43, or 16%. On June 1 of 2010 and 2011 another $7, and then $8, will be imposed, respectively. The raises amount to 57% inflation in water rates over the three year period.
Last month the District also announced water use restrictions effective June 1 as part of its ‘Level 2′ shortage alert. MV residents can irrigate yards only on Monday, Thursday and Saturday before 10 am or after 5 pm for periods not to exceed 15 minutes. The rules prohibit washing driveways or other paved surfaces and ban washing vehicles unless by bucket or with a hose equipped with a positive water shut-off nozzle.
On Friday’s Hannity show on FNC, correspondent Ainsley Earhardt filed an in depth report on the plight of farmers in California who are starving for water, exacerbated by a federal court which ordered that one of their sources of water be shut down due to fears that irrigation would harm an endangered species of fish, the delta smelt. Earhardt began: “California’s Central Valley is considered by many to be the richest and most productive farmland in the nation. But this land is being threatened by the small, harmless-looking minnow called the delta smelt. Recently, it has landed on the endangered species list, causing a federal court to shut down vital pumps to farmers to help preserve it.”
A shot was soon shown of Earhardt walking on dry ground that used to be a canal full of water until environmentalists convinced a federal court to shut off the water supply: “This was a canal full of gushing water irrigating the farmland here in the San Joaquin Valley. But as you can see, it is all dried up. The pumps were turned off after environmentalists won a federal court case.”
The FNC correspondent soon relayed Republican Congressman Devin Nunes’ complaint that thousands of jobs have been threatened by the ruling: “Representative Nunes estimates that 37,000 jobs have been lost due to the smelt issue, and that number is rising higher by the day. And in one town in California, unemployment is up to an astonishing 40 percent.”
After the report concluded with Earhardt visiting unemployed farmers at a food bank, the FNC correspondent appeared live in studio with Hannity as the two summed up the situation.