The San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency is a regional water agency that imports State Project Water into the Pass area, sells water to local water retailers, and helps protect our local groundwater basins. The Agency, created in 1961, is one of 29 State Water Contractors, each of whom has the right to purchase water from the State of California and sell that water within its service area on a wholesale or retail basis. The Agency is a water wholesaler; we do not sell water to the end user. The Agency has developed an extensive groundwater database that helps to manage and protect our local groundwater basins, including the Beaumont Basin. The Agency is concerned with meeting water demands from Calimesa to Cabazon.

Much of the area served by the Agency is experiencing severe groundwater overdraft, which means more water is pumped out of the ground each year than is replaced by nature through rain and snowmelt. Since 2003, the Agency has been importing water through the California Aqueduct to recharge local groundwater basins used by retail water companies, private companies, and individuals for domestic and other purposes. Without the water available from the Agency, groundwater levels would continue to decline (in some areas, water levels have decreased nearly 90 feet in the past 70 years) and some wells would dry up, while the power required to pump the water to the surface would continue to increase each year.

The Agency is governed by an elected Board of Directors responsible for making policy decisions that advance the Agency’s mission. Five of the directors represent five divisions, while two are elected at-large representing the entire service area. Each director is elected for a four-year term. Elections are held in November of even-numbered years. The General Manager, appointed by the Board, directs the day-to-day operations of the Agency, implements Board policies, and advises the Board on Agency issues.

All properties within the Agency’s 225-square mile service area benefit from the Agency’s ability to import water from the California Aqueduct. When there is an insufficient supply of local groundwater available, local water companies and well owners use this imported water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes. Taxes paid to the Agency pay the capital cost of facilities required to build the State Water Project and deliver water to the Agency’s service area.

For fiscal year 2005-2006, the Agency board set the tax rate at $0.17 per hundred dollars of assessed valuation. The board sets the tax rate each year, after considering what the expenses will be related to construction and operation of the State Water Project.

Not directly. The Agency may be required to raise wholesale rates to local water companies in order to cover increases in water rates from the State or other increases in local costs. This may cause local water purveyors to raise their rates to cover the additional cost of purchasing water from the Agency. But the decision on whether or not to raise rates to the end user is made by the local water retailer, not the Agency. This decision may be based on a number of factors, including how much of the retailer’s water is purchased from the Agency.

The Agency sets an ad valorem tax rate to cover the cost of paying bonds on the State Water Project. In addition, the Agency receives a portion of the property taxes paid to the County. We also receive revenues from water sales and from interest on current funds.