On May 11th, the Board of Directors for the Santa Clara Valley Water District (“Valley Water”) will vote on a big water rate hike.

It gets worse: the proposed more than 9% increase is merely the first of several wholesale water rate increases exceeding 146% over the next decade – as described in the Valley Water District’s capital plan (1). It should come as no surprise, since we’ve already endured a 142% jump in Valley Water District’s water rates since 2011 (2).

We have a simple proposal for the Valley Water Board: you can reduce rate hikes by stopping wasteful spending. We can start with a wasteful $2.5 billion dam – the Pacheco Reservoir Expansion – that the Water District’s own experts publicly assert will provide “no new water supply,” and “no long-term drought supply (3).”

Join us in urging Valley Water District to reduce the more than 9% rate increase by declining to include any part of the cost of the $2.5 billion Pacheco Dam in this year’s capital plan.