Position of SCWC

SCWC requests that it be allowed to increase Clearlake District rate base by the previously disallowed $1.6 million because SCWC believes the treatment plant is now fully utilized.

SCWC points out that implementing the CAP the treatment plant has benefited Clearlake customers. The quality of the water produced from the plant has been excellent. Since SCWC began complying with CAP, the finished water turbidity has typically been less than the CAP goal of 0.1 NTU. SCWC states that it is dedicated to reducing the risk to its customers of exposure to Cryptosporidium.

Burton testified that optimization means doing the best you can even if you are already achieving the CAP turbidity goal.

SCWC contends that the result of DHS limiting plant capacity to no more than 720 gpm is that the excess capacity that the Commission found in 1992 no longer exists. DHS requires that for planning purposes SCWC assume a maximum day demand of 500 gallons per customer. As of year-end 1999, SCWC had 2,102 customers in its Clearlake District, which would require for planning purposes a sufficient capacity to supply a maximum day demand equal to 730 gpm. Accordingly, SCWC asserts that no excess capacity exists.