‘This Cannot Continue’
Jan 29, 2025 03:44PM ● By Shamaya Sutton, photo by Shamaya Sutton
The turquoise blue waters of the Yuba River have become a staple sight for residents of Yuba County. During a special meeting held by Marysville City Council on Jan. 23, the possibility of someday pumping in water from this river via a partnership with Yuba Water Agency was discussed.
MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) - The City of Marysville lies nestled between two rivers: the Feather and the Yuba. Despite being a peninsula bordered by levies, the city is experiencing a water problem.
“Marysville water rates are, in many cases double and in some cases triple the rates charged in these other communities,” said Marysville Mayor Chris Branscum. “It is one of the more persistent and frankly more important problems for the city and its residents.”
This was one of the opening statements made on Jan. 23 during a special meeting held by Marysville City Council. The meeting was meant to oppose a 33% rate hike proposed by California Water Service’s (Cal Water), who currently supplies water to Marysville as well as Oroville and Chico.
When comparing water rates in neighboring communities such as Linda, Olivehurst and Yuba City, Branscum said those serviced by Cal Water happened to be the most expensive. Having looked at the last trailing 12 months of financial information from Yahoo Finance, Branscum stated that Cal Water had $566 million in gross profits and $200 million in bottom line profits within that time period.
“I was a lead senior operating executive in a company that managed over half a billion dollars, I know something about financial profiles,” said Branscum. “Fifty-six percent gross margins is the profile of a software company, they make huge profits.…They're making 20% bottom line and they're looking for a 36% increase. This has to be discussed, it has to be objected to.”
One of the primary concerns voiced by both council and local attendees was the already strained budgets of residents, especially the large population of those on a fixed income. Some in attendance reported their water bills to be as high as $800 or more during summer months and most had already given up on watering their lawns. With a good portion of the city’s population currently classified as disadvantaged, the city council felt that raising prices on an already competitively high bill would not bode well for future prospects.
“A private water company has very different goals than a city does,” said Marjorie Rollins, Marysville’s newest City Council member. “A city wants their city to thrive and live in a community that they are proud of. Every three years Cal Water submits a general rate case and water rates increase. We need to protect our residents and our business at all costs. This cannot continue.”
Marysville City Councilman Brad Hudson did give credit to Cal Water for its responsiveness and transparency. He likened the rate hikes to those imposed by other utility companies such as PG&E.
“I get it, the city of Marysville is old, there's a lot of infrastructure,” said Hudson. “As a retired fireman I was warned about collapsing pipes by pumping too much water on certain fires, so I get it we still have some old pipes…. How are we currently addressing the failures with what's currently in the coffers is a question I'd like to have answered.”
Marysville City Councilman Stuart Gilchrist asked city staff to have a conversation with Dan Bergman, a consulting specialist credited for taking care of the city’s sewer system and cleaning the waters of Ellis Lake. He also urged the group to have an educated conversation with Charlie Mathews, an elected representative of North Yuba County who serves on the board of Yuba Water Agency.
“I've already brought it to the board and staff’s attention at Yuba Water that it's something our community needs to work on to move forward,” said Yuba County Supervisor Renick House, representing District 2 which includes Marysville. “Somebody at our meeting brought up that Marysville sold its water rights off many years ago in the 1920’s but that doesn't mean we can't invest in water development in Northern California (or) make regional water systems that are fair for people in our county.”
Also in attendance was Jon Messick, Yuba County District 5 Supervisor and current chairman of Yuba Water Agency’s board of directors. Messick took this opportunity to reiterate that the Yuba Water Agency was paid for by Yuba County residents and that Yuba County owns it to help with flood risk reduction and water delivery to all of Yuba County.
“You guys would have to take it upon yourselves to come up with a plan of buying out Cal Water or merging with Linda County Water or OPUD (Olivehurst Public Utility District), a regionalized water system,” said Messick when addressing City Council. “Getting water out of the Yuba River seems like it would be the best thing for Yuba County, all of Yuba County residents to lower rates.”
Messick also informed attendees that there was already a plan being worked on to regionalize sewer systems in the south part of Yuba County which would also aid in protecting local groundwater.
“The plan is to have sewer brought all the way up from Wheatland into OPUD’s facility and maybe be able to incorporate Linda,” explained Messick.
With Marysville sewer already being connected to Linda’s, Messick said he didn't see why they couldn't also do the same thing with fresh water.
At this point representatives from Cal Water, Marysville district manager Tavis Beynon and regional manager Kevin McCusker, were allotted time to respond.
“We want to be as transparent as possible with the members of the council and the community itself,” said Beynon. “Today we’re hoping to request an opportunity to come back and at least explain our process, our numbers, and what we do to prepare for these rate cases.”
Additionally, McCusker told Branscum he would soon provide the requested documents which would include five years of financial records in regards to Marysville’s water billing including the last trailing 12 months. Gilchrist then asked McCusker whether Marysville's water rates would drop if its population size increased.
“Yes, the per unit cost would go up if you have more customers over which you share that cost,” replied McCusker.
How and why Marysville’s water rates got so high in the first place is a mystery city council now intends to solve. Jim Schaad, Marysville’s City Manager, said that if the council desired and directed, he and his staff would work with Cal Water to understand its current rates and why.
“I intend to dig into this,” said Schaad.
Gilchrist then made a motion to direct Schaad to ensemble a team of experts to look at this issue and “whatever other collateral activity is deemed necessary by management,” as added by Branscum.
The motion was passed unanimously.