The Record's Lodi Blog

Last night’s City Council meeting was about water. Council members talked much about the water the city has access to, other water it currently pays for but ends up in the ocean, and how the best way to make sure Lodi has good water now and in the future – along with how much residents will be charged for their water.

In the end, the council decided to raise water rates and to build a $42 million treatment facility that will make 6,000 acre feet the city buys out of the Mokelumne River drinkable.

Not everything that was discussed made today’s paper.

Here are some talking points that we’ll be keeping an eye on regarding water and the approved treatment plant.

- Water rates were raised by up to 2 percent, but the city could ultimately set lower rates. Public Works director Wally Sandelin will research how the city can use $15 million in groundwater contamination settlement money – which has restricted uses – to help offset rates. City Manager Rad Bartlam told me the utility doesn’t need the 2 percent increase to survive. It needs it to ensure its financial health into the year 2016, however, where reserve balances will be worn very thin without a revenue increase of some sort.

- The council also approved the spending of roughly $500,000 to study its contaminated groundwater sites. The study might save the city up to $25 million over the next 40 years of cleanup. It might not, too, but city officials are confident because the water quality administrators appear to be on board.

- Susan Hitchcock voted against the water treatment plant, which was noted in the story, but perhaps a little bit under-reported for how against it she was. She called it a “betrayal of public trust” and was steadfast in her recollection that the plant was supposed to be paid for by future development. She said the facility should be funded by a mello roos tax, or something of the sort, not out of money residents pay for water.

- The water treatment facility was at one time planned to include an “exploration center” where students could visit on field trips and learn about water. That plan was scrapped because of Homeland Security issues, Public Works Director Wally Sandelin said. Any facility where visitors may have access to a city’s water supply must be fully staffed at all times, and would require millions of extra dollars in operations costs annually, Sandelin said.