BAKERSFIELD, CA — The Kern County Water Agency has issued a four-month deadline for the Western Hills Water District to pay off a $14 million debt. If the district does not pay back the money, 600 homes in the Diablo Grande development could lose their water service.
The agency announced the deadline in a Jan. 28 news release, citing years of unpaid bills for the Stanislaus County community. Diablo Grande receives its water through a contract with the Kern agency, despite being located more than 200 miles away.
A Stalled Development
The financial crisis for the water district began after the 2008 economic downturn. The Diablo Grande development stalled at 600 homes, which is far short of the 5,000 originally planned.
The community is only 12% of its intended size. This means the current families are stuck paying for 8,000 acre-feet of water—an amount originally meant for a much larger population. An acre-foot is about the amount of water two average households use in a year.
Residents have already taken steps to address the debt. Homeowners recently voted to raise their own monthly water bills to $600. After paying for daily operations, the water district uses about $30,000 of the money collected each month to pay down the debt. So far, residents have paid approximately $150,000 toward the balance.
Tense Negotiations
According to the Kern County Water Agency (KCWA), payments from the Western Hills Water District stopped in 2019. This forced the agency to pay the state’s water fees for the district.
KCWA officials said they tried to reduce the debt by offering different payment plans and lowering the amount of water required by the district's contract, but the district rejected those offers.
However, officials from the Western Hills Water District said they were shocked by the public deadline because negotiations seemed to be going well. They also criticized the Kern County agency for revealing confidential details in the news release.
While residents now run the water district board, former developers signed the original water contracts. These developers are no longer involved with the project. A group of homeowners is currently suing the former developers in a separate lawsuit.
Questions Over Surplus Water
It is still unclear how much money the Kern County Water Agency has made from selling water originally meant for Diablo Grande. The agency has sold more than 61,000 acre-feet of this extra water but has not said how much money it made from those sales.
The news site SJV Water requested those figures, but the agency said it did not have enough staff to provide the information. Unless the two groups reach a new agreement, 600 homes in Diablo Grande still face a water shutoff this spring.
