Board directors of the small S&T Mutual Water company have asked Los Osos Community Service District if they could merge their operations-a move that would reduce the number of water suppliers in town from 3 to 2.
On August 1 the board of Los Osos CSD said they would entertain the idea. S&T serves the Monarch Grove/Sunset Terrace area but has recently faced challenges with high nitrate levels at their only well.
A representative of Golden State Water suggested they could offer benefits for working with them instead of the CSD.
But the CSD this past month approved the idea requested by S&T. Now that the consolidation is conceptually approved, there are multiple steps that need to be taken before finalizing the merger.
The S&T letter to the CSD says “S&T exists on the far western side of the Los Osos Groundwater Basin and is therefore inherently limited by both seawater intrusion and nitrate contamination of the upper and lower aquifers. The LOCSD has proactively and wisely pursued a pipeline to connect to the State Water Project (SWP) and we believe this signifies the most robust management of the water resources within our constrained basin.
Furthermore, we have observed that the LOCSD has taken on critical and costly projects while also minding a budget that ensures your ratepayers are not overly burdened by such improvements. With only 179 connections each of our customers must pay a higher share for infrastructure upgrades. In the past several years, it has become apparent that our rates will continue to increase rapidly as we work to address much-needed repairs and upgrades to the aging S&T water system.”
The state’s SAFER program, the program that encourages small water system consolidation, is designed to
pay for the costs of design and connection between the two water systems and other incidental costs associated with the consolidation.