All of the recent rain has people wondering if their water bill will start to go down.
John Tang, a vice president of the San Jose Water company, said he understands why the public would expect water rates to go down, especially since the company raised rates recently with the approval of the California Public Utilities Commission. But he pointed out that San Jose Water is a retailer subject to rising taxes and the cost of service from its wholesale supplier: the water district.
"The water, when you think about it, is really free," he said. "It falls from the sky. What costs money is actually collecting it and transporting it to the state and federal water projects and getting it here to the valley where it’s treated and put into pipes and delivered to homes and businesses."
That means customers' bills may not be going down even as water storage goes up.
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Tang said it will be the snowpack measurements taken in about three months that may determine if rates, as he put it, get blunted for consumers.
