2. Background
The Commission opened this investigation to address policies to achieve its conservation objectives for Class A water utilities and ordered the consolidation of four pending conservation rate design
applications - Application (A.) 06-09-006 (Golden State Water Company (GSWC)), A.06-10-026 (California Water Service Company (CalWater)),
A.06-11-009 (Park Water Company (Park)), and A.06-11-010 (Suburban Water Systems (Suburban)).1 A May 29, 2007 ruling established Phases 1A and 1B and consolidated San Jose Water Company's (San Jose) application, A.07-03-019.
In Decision (D.) 08-02-036, the Phase 1A decision, the Commission adopted eight settlement agreements affecting CalWater, Park and Suburban on conservation rates, revenue adjustment mechanisms, modified cost balancing accounts, a low-income assistance program, customer education and outreach, and data collection and reporting. In D.08-08-030, the Phase 1B decision, the Commission adopted four settlement agreements for GSWC and San Jose on conservation rates, revenue adjustment mechanisms, customer education and outreach, and data collection and reporting.
The February 8, 2008 Phase 2 scoping memo established the non-rate design conservation measures that would be considered in this phase of the proceeding. The Phase 2 scoping memo noted that the issues to be addressed in this phase of the proceeding were extensive and that the Commission might not make findings on all of them. The scope of Phase 2 was amended in four subsequent rulings, the December 30, 2008 amended scoping memo (soliciting additional comments), the June 30, 2009 second amended scoping memo (deferring several issues and notifying parties that a workshop would be set), the January 6, 2010 third amended scoping memo (setting a workshop and modifying the issues to be considered), and the July 30, 2010 fourth amended scoping memo (setting a workshop and extending the time to resolve the proceeding). Parties who filed Phase 2 comments include Consumer Federation of California (CFC), California Water Association (CWA), the Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA), Joint Consumers,2 Park, Public Official for Water and Environmental Reform and Natural Resources Defense Council (POWER/NRDC), and Suburban.3
The Commission's Policy and Planning Division (PPD) held three Phase 2 workshops: a workshop on water recycling on June 24, 2009, a workshop on statewide water use data integration on July 20, 2009, and a workshop on water use data integration, water conservation policies, and the need for coordination among the state's water agencies in light of the amendments to the Water Code contained in Senate Bill SBX7-74 on January 21, 2010.
The Commission's assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), Division of Water and Audits (DWA) and PPD held two additional workshops on
September 13 and 14 and October 20, 2010 to address a baseline for conservation/water use goals, a protocol for streamlining conservation data reporting, and steps Class A water utilities must take in their general rate cases to convert to per capita water use reporting. At the October 20, 2010 workshop, Peter Brostrom, SBX7-7 Urban Program Manager from the Department of Water Resources (DWR), presented an outline of the methodologies contained in DWR's October 1, 2020 "Methodologies for Calculating Baseline and Compliance Urban Per Capita Water Use."5 A draft workshop summary was submitted to the parties for edits and corrections and a December 24, 2010 ruling requested comments on the final workshop summary. CWA, DRA, and the Joint Consumers submitted comments on the workshop summary.
1 A January 16, 2007 ruling affirmed consolidation of the applications with the Order Instituting Investigation.
2 Joint Consumers include Disability Rights Advocates, National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), and The Utility Reform Network (TURN).
3 DRA organized a meeting on May 12, 2008 with a professional facilitator and the parties to determine if there were areas of consensus.
4 SBX7-7 is codified as Water Code §§ 10608 et al.
5 http://www.water.ca.gov/wateruseefficiency/sb7/docs/methodologies-urban-per-capita-water-use-10042010.pdf.
